Biotech startup, researchers revive old tech to make low-carbon protein from coal
A Calgary-based clean energy and biotech startup is aiming to transform the way the world’s livestock is fed by providing a low-cost, low-carbon, alternative to fish or soybean meal — by tapping into an abundant Canadian resource: coal.
Cvictus — which recently received a $1.7-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to scale its technology — says it is on a mission to resurrect a proven, decades-old industrial fermentation process that converts methanol into a high protein material used in animal feed.
First commercialized in Britain in the 1980s, the technology — though successful — was abandoned shortly after due to skyrocketing methanol prices.
Cvictus is revitalizing the method by leveraging its proprietary system for extracting beneficial gases to produce feedstocks, such as methanol, from coal deep beneath the earth’s surface.
The company is tapping the expertise at University of Alberta’s Biorefining Conversions and Fermentation Laboratory through a program coordinated by Mitacs, a Canadian innovation organization.
“We have giant dreams and expectations for where this technology will go, but as a startup, we can’t feasibly employ the resources required to scale,” Cvictus director, biotechnology and carbon reduction, Katrina Stewart said in a media statement. “Academic researchers provide the innovation, expertise and drive we need to help move the needle forward on this exciting technology.”
“When we looked at different ways to utilize coal, and bring it to market, methanol was easiest to produce after hydrogen,” said Stewart.
She said that the carbon-hydrogen ratio of the gas being recovered from coal using the Cvictus platform is “perfect for making methanol” and therefore presents a sustainable source for industrial fermentation.
Researchers are working with Cvictus advance two integrated projects: The Mannville project in Alberta and the Sweetwater project in Wyoming.
On the clean energy side, they’re contributing to commercialization of the company’s large-scale hydrogen recovery platform at its facility near Red Deer, where hydrogen initially is ‘mined’ from deep within the coal seam using patented technology that sequesters carbon at the same time.
On the biotech side, student researchers are helping to resurrect, improve and modernize methanol fermentation to support animal feed, with the potential of making a significant positive impact on the environment, since methanol fermentation requires a much smaller footprint, both physically and environmentally, compared to soybean meal and fish meal production, both of which negatively affect natural ecosystems.
To date, working in the University of Alberta lab under the supervision of professor David Bressler and in consultation with experts who worked on the original technology, student researchers have successfully conducted methanol fermentation at bench scale.
Similar to how sugar is fermented to make yogurt in the food industry, they harvest the bacteria grown on methanol to produce single cell protein, which is then dried to produce a powder ready for processing into livestock feed.
“Cvictus is a powerful example of how Canadian innovation fueled by research talent from our own universities can lead to smarter, more sustainable agricultural solutions,” Mitacs CEO Dr. Stephen Lucas said.
Thanks to new innovations brought forth in the lab, students were able to double the productivity compared to 40 years ago. Cvictus said it is now applying the Gates Foundation funding to move the process to larger equipment located in the university’s Agri-Food Discovery Place, where researchers will be working under the supervision of professor Ruurd Zijlstra on live feed trials in animals.