Bridging the protein gap: Alfa Laval’s separation solutions for next-generation food

The joint venture launched its production facility in China to develop an innovative feed solution for aquaculture, ensuring a dedicated supply for the Asian market, which represents 70% of the global demand. 

Scaling up animal food production from microorganisms 

Calysseo creates protein products from microorganisms through biomass processing. In simple terms, gases are fed to microorganism in a tank- a bioreactor -, which turns them into microbial protein. In the separation stage, the bacterial biomass is isolated from the liquid to make it into a protein product, and this is where Calysseo singled out the unique Alfa Laval PureFerm Bactofuge™ centrifuge as the piece of equipment that would fulfil their mission to make more with less.  

“The big challenge for our customer was to develop this process and upscale from the pilot stage to full-scale production,” says Dmitriy Smirnov, from Renewable Resources, Global Sales and a specialist in next-generation food separation.  “Our task was to understand how to separate the bacteria mass from the liquid. At the scale they were looking to achieve, the volume was too high for membranes, so it was clear to us that this was a job for PureFerm 750 Bactofuge.”  

“We carried out tests with the customer in the UK in 2021 with a small-scale separator, which were successful, and then moved to China where we commissioned separators in 2022 and optimized the technology together with the customer over the next two years. We worked through any issues following installation together, and at the end of 2024 carried out the final set-up of separators – and the customer has been delighted with the results.” 

Those results are being delivered by six PureFerm 750 units with Bactofuge technology that are now operating at the plant just outside of Chongqing, where they have proved themselves a cut above any alternative technologies by optimizing the yield, and increasing its concentration and quality.  

“The PureFerm is the perfect machine for the task,” explains Dmitriy. “It is unique in that it is hermetically sealed so it can operate under different pressures and concentrations, and you can increase capacity without making any changes in the set-up, which is a huge benefit for the customer.” 

“The key element is that there is no need to discharge product from the machine, which means that this is a constant process. So, in a brewery you would separate the beer from the yeast, and you need to discharge the sludge, but here the bacterial mass is concentrated and separated from the solution and discharged continuously like heavy phase.” 

“With our unique technology, we can achieve high final product concentration when compared to traditional technology” 

With its Hermetic Design ™, the PureFerm 750 is a sealed unit there is no contamination, less cleaning is required. 

“I would say that this particular project shows that we are a world leader in the area of supplying unique technology like PureFerm 750 for obtaining protein from bacteria,” says Dmitriy. “We know that the planet needs more and more of this kind of thing, with no impact on land or animals, so I can only see this market growing and Alfa Laval is positioned well to play our part.”