CO2 as feedstock ticks the cost box
CALIFORNIA based NovoNutrients makes feed from CO2, having developed a gas fermentation technology that it claims will help decarbonise food and aquaculture.
The company’s Christopher Oakes said the finite supply of fishmeal and fish oil was creating ‘an appetite for alternative ingredients’.
He described NovoNutrients’ process as the ‘intersection of digital technology and analogue ingredients’.
Feed mills typically use the lowest cost feed formulation software to come up with the right diet to meet the customer’s nutritional profile.
NovoNutrients uses a proprietary gas fermentation process that transforms a blend of CO2 from untreated industrial emissions and H2 into a single cell protein aquafeed, Novomeal.
The company said its selection of H2 and CO2 provides potential for scale and lowest cost feedstocks.
The key to the process is a patent pending framework for defined microbial consortia that grows on that CO2/H2 mix.
The workhorse bacteria and other microbes form a symbiotic ecosystem, with each microbe contributing to the overall health and dynamic of the whole.
The bacteria becomes the product, containing the various nutrients and proteins needed for healthy fish diets.
Like fishmeal, it is a complete protein, with all 10 essential amino acids needed by fish, as well as key vitamins and minerals.
‘At scale, we can produce it at a low cost, it’s a high quality protein with all the essential amino acids that fish need, it’s non-GMO, it’s all natural,’ said Oakes.
In a first feeding trial with rainbow trout in the US – with a 40 per cent inclusion rate of the protein- the survival rate of the test group was equivalent to that of the control. Growth rates were also interesting but there are additional trials to complete.
Oakes said the first sales will most likely be as special ingredients in larval shrimp feeds and larval salmon feeds.
The company has already raised $3.7 million to date.