University of Alberta researchers are working with an Alberta startup to get an edible coal-derived protein into the marketplace, replacing less eco-friendly ingredients in animal feed.
The innovative research, powered in part by a US$1.7-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is being conducted by David Bressler and Ruurd Zijlstra in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.
Working with Cv̄ictus, a company that brought the project to the U of A for modernization, Bressler's Biorefining Conversions and Fermentation Laboratory has improved the technology needed to make single cell protein (SCP).
Their collaboration resurrects technology first developed and approved for use 40 years ago in Europe, that is now being tested for potential use in Canada.
SCP is a nutrient-rich, low-cost substitute for fish meal and soybean meal, the standard protein sources used in animal feed, and could be a "game changer" in several ways, says Bressler, a bioresource scientist.
"Single cell protein technology has many benefits that could redefine the face of agriculture in Canada," he says.
"It's an opportunity to produce a much more sustainable ingredient that is less expensive to make, has a much smaller carbon footprint and is scalable to production."
Using a patented process, Cv̄ictus is focused on extracting hydrogen from deep coal seams without mining, converting it to produce clean methanol and then from there, making SCP for use in livestock feed. The leftover carbon is then captured and sequestered back underground.
The technology leverages Alberta's major industries of energy and agriculture, says Brett Wilcox, CEO of Cv̄ictus.
"Alberta has massive energy resources, so by turning those hydrocarbon resources into protein, the potential is there to supply most of the animal feed market in Canada and the world."
The SCP is derived from methanol drawn from hydrogen and carbon in the coal. Bacteria are grown on the methanol that are then harvested, dried and processed into livestock feed.
Besides being more nutrient-rich, SCP is better for the environment than the intensive operations needed to produce protein sources like soybean meal, Wilcox notes.
"The world has lost about half of its forest cover, almost all for agriculture, with 77 per cent of that land being used to grow animal feed and forage, so using SCP reduces that footprint, with massive environmental benefits," he says. "The only way to remove a high amount of CO2 from the atmosphere relatively quickly and at a large scale is mass reforestation."
Foundational research
The fermentation method Bressler's lab developed improves on a bacteria that was first isolated and commercialized in the 1970s and 1980s by a former chemical company in Britain. At the time, the SCP created from that process was certified and mass-produced for livestock feed in Europe, but was sidelined by high methanol prices.
Through their work, and consulting with the developers of the original technology, Bressler and his team of researchers have since replicated and improved the process "to get optimum productivity," he says.
"We want to get the highest conversion rates of methanol to high-value protein with the best amino acid composition possible." Amino acids are essential building blocks to protein.
The research being done at the U of A is foundational, notes Katrina Stewart, director of Biotechnology and Carbon Reduction for Cv̄ictus, adding that the conversion process works with any methanol.
Bressler "was one of the few scientists in the world who had the extensive expertise and the capacity to do industrial fermentation."
Feed trials
Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant, the product is now being tested by Zijlstra in feed trials with livestock. The research is vital to earning certification from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for commercializing the SCP in Canada.
Production is being scaled up at the U of A's Agri-Food Discovery Place to make hundreds of kilograms of the powdered SCP, which will then be blended into feed given to pigs and poultry.
Over the next two years, Zijlstra will assess the Cv̄ictus product for key qualities, including nutrient digestibility and growth performance.
"If SCP is found to be a valuable and safe ingredient to include in feed, particularly for animals with high nutritional demands, that will be a win," he notes, adding that the innovation could help other countries provide protein-rich feed to their livestock.
Building global sustainability
The U of A research will also yield several new "downstream" processes and technologies to move SCP forward, Bressler notes.
"The work will reduce production costs and increase the quality of the product for end users, such as feed companies."
The technology will eventually be used at a first-of-its-kind facility Cv̄ictus plans to build near Red Deer. Besides potentially employing U of A post-doctoral researchers and graduate students, the venture could, beyond producing SCP, make Alberta a world leader in using the more efficient fermentation process, Wilcox suggests.
"There's huge potential to build a methanol-based industry to compete with traditional biotechnology."
Once the feed trials are complete, the company could be ready for small-scale commercial sales, he adds.
Research exploring alternative solutions, such as SCP, is vital to building global sustainability, Bressler believes.
"It's a way of looking at our non-renewable and renewable resources and using modern approaches and technology to solve some of the biggest challenges we have. And that's important, because if our population keeps growing, we can't just keep doing the same things."
Research support has been provided by Cv̄ictus, MITACS, a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Alliance Grant and Alberta Innovates.
