RISE Processum AB, Sweden, participates in the BBI (Bio-Based Industries) project SYLFEED. The Arbiom-led consortium has received EUR 11.7 million funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) to demonstrate the production of sustainable feed for aquaculture from forestry material. The SYLFEED project brings together key industry and research players to assemble the new "wood to food" value chain: Arbiom, Laxa, Matis, Norske Skog Golbey, Østfoldforskning, Prayon, Processum, and Skretting. 

The EUR 11.7 million EU in funding from the European Union BBI-JU will support the building of a demonstration plant that will be co-located with Norske Skog Golbey’s pulp and paper site in the east of France.

The project will effectively convert non-food biomass into feed ingredients by growing protein rich microorganisms on pre-processed woody biomass. Already demonstrated by the partners at pilot scale, the SYLFEED project will allow for improvement of the overall process and its operation in a 5,000 metric tpy capacity demonstration plant. The project brings together partners from five countries covering all of the key steps of the value chain:

• Biomass sourcing and industrial scale processing by Norske Skog Golbey.
• Biomass fractionation and conversion into microbial proteins by ARBIOM.
• Phosphoric acid processing and industrial scale-up by Prayon.
• Advanced expertise in microbial proteins production by Processum, a subsidiary to RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden.
• Fish feed formulation and trials by Iceland research institute Matis.
• Cradle-to-cradle life cycle analysis by Norwegian firm, Østfoldforskning.
• Final validation of the product by aquaculture companies, Laxa and Skretting, global leaders in fish feed production.

"The SYLFEED project puts a new spin on the bio-economy. Lignocellulose is not only a sustainable solution for the chemicals and fuels industries, but now also presents us with a scalable and sustainable solution to the world’s growing food sourcing problems in general and Europe’s protein deficit in particular," said Marc Chevrel, CEO of Arbiom/Biométhodes. "The demonstration plant and complete coverage of the value chain will allow us to prove the viability of our approach at commercial scale."