dagsson@gmail.com

European partnership focused on solving sustainable protein challenge concludes; Successful in advancing first-of-its kind ‘Wood to Food’ process technology to produce nutritional, sustainable protein.

Arbiom, an agricultural-biotechnology company developing solutions to convert wood into protein for feed and food applications, today announced the conclusion of the SYLFEED Project, following a final webinar in series of events marking the end of the project. The webinar was focused on the environmental performance of SylPro®, a protein-rich ingredient, which has been at the center of the SYLFEED mission and activities.

SYLFEED was founded with the goal of developing a solution to the challenge of sourcing, producing and securing high-quality, sustainable protein sources due to the growing demands of aquaculture and animal feed producers in Europe, and globally in the future.

The SYLFEED partners’ activities have focused on commercializing a first-of-a kind bioprocessing technology, to upcycle abundant, available and underutilized bio-based feedstocks, such as wood wastes and residues, into higher value biobased applications, notably, a protein-rich ingredient for use in aqua and animal feed: SylPro®.

The SYLFEED Project was a partnership of 10 organizations founded in 2017, with the support from The European Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) under the Horizon 2020 Program, and led by Arbiom over the past four years. The SYLFEED Project convened leading organizations from each step in the value chain, from the biomass sourcing (Norske Skog, Golbey) to the biomass fractionation and conversion into SylPro (Prayon, Rise Processum, Bioprocess Pilot Facility, Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant and Arbiom), to the fish feed formulation and manufacturing (Laxá, Matís and Skretting). Finally, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted by NORSUS to evaluate the environmental performance of SylPro compared to other protein sources.

“The project success is a testament to the collaboration and diverse expertise contributed from our partners in the SYLFEED project; leaders representing all parts of the ‘Wood to Food’ value chain came together with a common vision and commitment to success,” said Marc Chevrel, Arbiom CEO.

“We believe the Wood to Food technology platform represents a game-changing solution to expand food production potential without harming ecosystems or consuming more limited resources, by bringing wood and other undervalued biomass into the food chain. The SYLFEED Project achievements are a valuable contribution to advance biobased solutions to nutrition and sustainability challenges in Europe,” said Birgir Örn Smárason, Project Manager, for MATIS.

See full Press Release here.

A new video presenting the final results of the 4 year SYLFEED project is now available here below. The video reviews the whole project, goals and results. Please watch and enjoy.

The second part of the SYLFEED Final Webinar Series took place on June 29th. The topic was Scale-up of Arbiom’s Wood to Food Process. The main speaker was Charles-Henri Nicolas from ARBIOM. We have now made the recording of this webinar available here below:

The first part of the SYLFEED Final Webinar Series took place on June 22nd. The topic was Comparative performance of SylPro in salmonids. The speakers were Birgir Örn Smárason and Alexandra Leeper from MATIS and Ricardo Ekmay from ARBIOM. We have now made the recording of this webinar available here below:

On the 28th and 29th of June the final General Assembly of the SYLFEED project will be held. The meeting will gather every partner of the project to review the final results of this 4 year fruitful collaboration. The Assembly will take place online.

Below is an introduction video to the SYLFEED project. A new video presenting the main results of the project will be made available soon on this webpage.

Arbiom achieved another critical step in its Demonstration Program to scale up its technology to produce an alternative protein ingredient, SylPro®. Arbiom works with BBEU as part of the SYLFEED project to scale-up its Wood to Food technology. Today Arbiom and BBEU are announcing success of several continuous one-week fermentation operations at 15m 3 scale. To read the full press release, please visit the Arbiom website.

We are pleased to announce SYLFEED consortium has begun large scale trials, starting with the digestibility study of Arbiom’s high-quality alternative protein ingredient, SylPro®. The test is conducted on Atlantic salmon by Matís Icelandic Food & Biotech R&D.

Arbiom recently announced the results of a successful study evaluating SylPro^®, its high-quality alternative protein ingredient, for use in Nile tilapia feed. The four-week trial was conducted by Matís Icelandic Food & Biotech R&D as part of the SYLFEED consortium.

In the recent study, SylPro^® was included in Nile tilapia diets at levels of 0%, 10%, 20% and 30%, replacing a plant protein mix comprised of corn gluten meal, soybean meal and sunflower meal. The fish meal content of the diets remained constant. Results showed the replacement of the plant protein mix by SylPro^® showed no statistical difference in performance compared to conventional protein ingredients in terms of fish growth rates, measured in body weight gain, of the Nile tilapia at up to a 30% inclusion level in the diets.

“The Nile tilapia trial results indicate that SylPro^® can be used to replace a plant protein mix in feeds for juvenile Nile tilapia without significant loss in growth performance,” said Dr. Jon Arnason, Senior Animal Nutritionist with Matis.

“This is a crucial developmental stage for the Nile tilapia and this study shows Arbiom’s novel protein to be a viable, nutritional protein ingredient,” Arnason said.

“These results build on findings from previous growth trial studies of SylPro^® in aquafeed diets for Atlantic salmon and Hybrid Striped Bass,” said Marc Chevrel, CEO of Arbiom. “Arbiom’s Wood-to-Food technology platform, and our flagship commercial product, SylPro^®, continue to consistently demonstrate that we can offer a viable alternative protein source for the aquaculture and animal feed industries, said Chevrel.

Arbiom has future additional studies planned to evaluate SylPro^® performance in Atlantic salmon diets, in terms of  growth and in vivo digestibility.

“We look forward to continuing to scale-up both Arbiom’s Wood-to-Food process technology, and to advance commercial adoption of our first protein product in the market, with the goal of achieving full commercialization of Arbiom’s technology,” Chevrel said.

LINK TO FULL PRESS RELEASE

In the Sylfeed project Ostfoldforskning investigates the environmental performance of the protein product being produced with Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) all through the project. In this video Andreas Brekke from Ostfoldforskning explains the importance of LCA for assessing environmental impact of products and how it is implemented in the Sylfeed project, all through the value chain; from wood sourcing to feed for aquaculture. Preliminary LCA data indicates promising early results from a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of SylPro. See also Arbiom Sylpro shows lowest impact on climate change compared to other proteins.