According to a report by Feed Naviagtor (Crawley, U.K.) this past month, Integrated BioChem (Raleigh, N.C., USA) has established what it says is the managed ecosystem fermentation (MEF) process to take cellulosic waste and generate chemicals including proteins and other ingredients that could be used in feed, food or in industrial products in an economical and sustainable way.

So far the company has gathered several patents for the process which uses bacteria, yeast, protozoa, and fungi in the fermentation system. Currently, the company is in the midst of scaling up its recycling system according to its CEO.

The system is capable of using waste paper or the by-products generated in paper products to make proteins, added Integrated Biochem's CEO. "One pizza box can contaminate 1 ton of paper (for recycling), but we can take that contaminatted paper and process it and convert it into protein... These bugs can be trained to a specific feedstock. The other application is the short fibers out of a paper mill - we have proven that the short fibers can be easily converted."

 

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