Cargill, Calysta plan state-of-the-art fermentation facility in US

MINNEAPOLIS/ MENLO PARK, US: Cargill Incorporated and Calysta Inc, along with several third-party institutions have planned to invest in the creation of the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, US, to produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, a family of sustainable, traceable nutritional ingredients for fish, livestock and pets.

The new venture plans to build and operate this facility on Cargill’s 69-acre property on President’s Island, where Cargill presently produces corn oil and stores and distributes sweetener products. The facility is expected to come online in late 2018, producing up to 20,000 metric tonnes per year of FeedKind protein initially and expanding up to 200,000 metric tonnes per year when operating at full capacity.

Upon completion of the plant, the new venture expects to hire 75 permanent employees and expand to 160 people when the plant is at full ramp-up.

FeedKind protein is a proprietary, competitively priced, new feed ingredient initially targeted as an alternative to fishmeal for the aquaculture industry. It is produced using the world’s only commercially validated gas fermentation process. Cargill and Calysta jointly will be marketing FeedKind protein worldwide. 

“The venture’s building of a state-of-the-art fermentation facility on the existing Cargill Memphis site reaffirms our commitment to the community and state and our pledge to strategically invest in aquaculture as an ever increasingly important source of protein,” said Brian Silvey, global VP of Bio-industrial, Cargill.

“With a proven and proprietary fermentation platform, Calysta is introducing a scalable and disruptive protein source critical to meeting the needs of a growing global population. Joining with Cargill, a leader in fermentation and protein production, and others to invest in the establishment of the venture as the first US manufacturing plant to commercially produce FeedKind protein,” said Alan Shaw, PhD, president and CEO, Calysta.

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