SALMONAID is a new Swedish project initiated by RISE Bioscience and Materials, Processum, SLU, and Domsjö Fabriker, and financed by Vinnova. With microorganisms cultivated on side streams from the forest industry, the project aims to optimize the process for production of microbe-based protein with higher protein content, as well as try out oil production, to use as salmon feed. The raw material will then be evaluated as a substitute for primarily soy-based but also fish-based feedstock used in today’s fish feed. 

"There is a growing interest from the fish farming industry to develop fish feed with less environmental impact and resource competition compared with current products," said Sara Hornborg, RISE Bioscience and materials, researcher and project leader for SALMONAID. "It is of outmost importance to reduce the dependence on fish meal and fish oil in feed to fish, not least in order to have balanced ecosystems in the oceans. Soy, which so far has been used more and more as a substitute, is also being questioned. This is why microbes using residual streams from the Swedish forest industry is a very interesting raw material."

 

 

"Processum has recently invested in two multi bioreactor systems in which we, with spent sulfite liquor from Domsjö Fabriker as a raw material and with the aid of microorganisms in this project, will produce protein and oil for fish feed," said Björn Alriksson, biotechnology manager, Processum. "The cultivation trials will be performed under different conditions to optimize the process for production of a high-quality protein product. When we have found the prerequisites for a high quality product, we will successively produce increasing amounts in our bioreactors. At the end of the project period, our aim is to be able to produce high quality single cell protein that works well in fish feed and which in turn gives good results in feeding of fish."

Anders Kiessling, professor at SLU responsible for the feeding trials, added that "salmon is the most common cultivated fish on Swedish tables. Salmonids need fish feed with a high protein quality for a good return. During the project, we will hence do several feeding trials with rainbow trout to confirm that they are feeding well and growing at the same rate or better compared with those fed with today’s fish and soy based fish feed. Earlier we tested the same protein concept with good results on Tilapia, a tropical fish species. The SALMONAID project, feeding of rainbow trout with fish feed based on a premium protein, is hence one step closer to industrial production of environmentally sustainable fish feed."

SALMONAID is mainly financed by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency, as well as by Domsjö Fabriker.