Russian company becomes shareholder in gas to feed protein player Unibio

11-May-2021 - Last updated on 11-May-2021 at 12:32 GMT

Protelux plant, Ivangorod, Russia © Protelux

Under a new agreement, Stafilies, the parent company of Russian based Uniprotein production licensee, Protelux, will buy a shareholding in Danish feed protein player, Unibio, in exchange for cash and intellectual property.

The intellectual property includes all of the knowledge gained over the past five years of how to install and operate industrial-scale production of Uniprotein, the methane gas to feed protein product pioneered by Unibio.

The Danish company said it has also secured an option to acquire a stake in Protelux in the future.

The agreement, said Unibio, is about deepening an existing commercial relationship between the parties.

Protelux is the first industrial plant, under license, to bring Unibio’s patented U-Loop continuous-flow fermentation process into industrial-scale production. Located in Ivangorod, Russia, the plant, which currently has an installed capacity of 6,000 tons of Uniprotein per year that can be scaled up to 20,000 tons, is close to the border with Estonia, an EU member state. “This location has access to cost-effective natural gas, as well proximity to the European Union and the Baltic Sea for shipping,” said Unibio.

The Danish innovator noted that one of the key challenges for any protein technology is to upscale production from the laboratory to an industrial setting.

“Since 2016, Unibio and Stafilies have worked closely together developing solutions and operational guidelines that will benefit future projects and plants all over the world. With the commencement of industrial scale production at Protelux, Unibio will benefit from being able to showcase the proven technology and processes to potential partners and customers. It will also use the facility to accelerate further product and production improvements and the global roll-out of its technology.”

Middle East focused innovation

Last month, we reported that Unibio had signed a licensing deal with Gulf Biotech, a Doha-based industrial biotech investor to produce its feed protein in Qatar.

Henrik Busch-Larsen, CEO of Unibio, said then that the abundance of natural gas in Qatar makes the country an obvious choice for the production of Uniprotein.

The licensing deal covers one production facility.