SYLFEED Consortium, a 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
Paris, France / Durham, N.C. – August 31, 2021 – Arbiom 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.
“We applaud the work and achievements of the SYLFEED Project partners, and successful contributions to a healthy, sustainable future food system in Europe, and worldwide,” said Pilar Llorente Ruiz De Azua, Project Officer, working on the SYLFEED project, for the BBI JU.
“The collaborative work allowed the consortium to prove that Arbiom’s Wood to Food process is a viable solution to bridge the protein gap in Europe with technology to produce a local, scalable, traceable supply of high-quality protein source from abundant, undervalued biomass sources,” said Charles-Henri Nicolas, PhD, VP Demo Program for Arbiom.
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