Converting nutrients from effluent into feed ingredients
The iCell Sustainable process recovers nutrients from food process effluent in water resource recovery facilities into high quality, sustainable feed ingredients.
iCell Sustainable Nutrition converts nutrients from food process effluent water into single-cell proteins (SCPs) to be used as a high quality ingredient in compound feeds.
Traditionally, a food, beverage, or rendering plant has had limited options to manage its organic effluent: either treat it as waste and dispose of it as activated sludge or convert it to methane gas. While methane gas is a sustainable option for beneficial reuse, the economic value is relatively low compared to a protein ingredient.
Companies have recently discovered a third option for their process effluent: a patented process that converts valuable nutrients found in effluent waste streams into single-cell proteins (SCPs) and nucleotides for use as high-quality feed ingredients for livestock and aquaculture.
Hong Kong-based iCell Sustainable, with operating offices in Shanghai, China, is the first to fully commercialize this patented process. The company has been producing and selling SCPs commercially for several years at a cogeneration site with a globally recognized brewing company. iCell is now actively expanding with new partners at production sites in China, Indonesia, and North America. iCell is part of the Shanghai Gentech Industries Group, a 1,000+ employee company with 18 locations across China producing and marketing a variety of food, feed, and ingredient products.
“The SCPs produced from effluent water are a critical nutrient at 2 to 4 percent inclusion rates in the Gentech nursery piglet feeds. As a major feed producer in China, we invested in the iCell technology from the perspective of a feed company looking for the ability to produce our own, high quality ingredients, not as a water treatment company,” says Frank Hu, Gentech COO. “We see iCell as an important macro-ingredient with significant gut health benefits, improvements in feed conversion, and as a replacement to fishmeal in premium feed formulations.”
In addition to creating a protein-nucleotide ingredient, companies partnering with iCell to create SCPs while treating effluent water can also:
· Lower waste disposal costs
· Eliminate sludge hauling and related costs
· Eliminate land application of sludge
· Handle higher levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) input in existing aeration equipment
· Reduce corrosive hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and its odors from anaerobic processes
· Create a lower carbon, greener footprint
· Improve overall water processing efficiency of dissolved air flotation (DAF) clarifier systems
· Create cleaner water to recycle for use in boilers and cooling towers.
SCPs are not new. For decades, the science community has known that SCPs possess better properties than many land-based protein sources. However, scientists investigating SCPs have faced two challenges: (1) Economically produce high-quality SCPs; and (2) consistently commercialize SCPs with feed companies.
Mark Rottmann, general manager of Gentech North America and vice president of business development at iCell adds, “Gentech and iCell have changed this paradigm and developed processes and commercial products that are economically viable throughout the globe.”
A large beverage/ethanol production plant or a poultry/swine rendering plant will typically have enough high-quality, organic material in its effluent to produce several thousand tons annually of a high-quality SCP for use in aquaculture and animal nutrition. By converting these nutrients into SCP, a company can also eliminate the waste that it would create with a traditional wastewater plant to process the effluent.
Unlike fishmeal, which is based on variable and declining ocean stocks or traditional agriculture that requires a location with ideal temperature, rainfall, or soil type conditions, iCell creates a valuable protein ingredient from food industry processes independent of those variables. In effect, the SCPs can be produced nearly anywhere, including near a feed production company, which lowers transportation costs and reduces the carbon footprint of the SCP ingredient. For many economies struggling with food production, iCell can help accelerate the creation of protein ingredients anywhere.
Producing SCPs also aligns more closely with the consistent processing needs of a feed mill, as the SCP is produced each day instead of sourced from a single harvest at the end of a growing season. Producing several thousand tons of SCP on a 2-hectare site, versus 1-3 tons of grain per 1.4 hectare (1 acre) is also a significantly more efficient than land agriculture.
Leveraging existing infrastructure
The iCell process easily integrates into an existing water treatment system that is already equipped with an aeration tank. In order to produce high-quality nutrients, iCell operates the system under slightly different conditions and with higher efficiency than traditional activated sludge parameters in a wastewater facility. The entire system is operated under aerobic conditions, with controlled nutrient inputs and short resonance time. These features enable the iCell process to create a high protein and low total volatile nitrogen TVN product (measurement of impurity), resulting in fresh, healthy, and digestible nutrients for animal feed applications.
From the aeration tank, iCell harvests, concentrates, dries, grinds, sterilizes, and packages the SCP-nucleotide aggregate to make an animal-grade feedstock, ready for shipment to a feed producer. A typical system for a facility that will produce a few thousand tons of SCP feed annually could expect an initial investment of US$2 to 5 million. The range will depend on how much traditional wastewater treatment infrastructure is in place and on the final composition of the SCP ingredient.
Biomass production partnership
Before investing in an SCP program, iCell recommends that a company evaluate several criteria:
Effuent source: Food and beverage processing plants are the ideal candidates to supply a healthy organic biomass because the source raw material is rich in nutrients and free from potential contaminants.
Scale: An SCP production program is cost effective for plants that produce several thousand tons of SCP annually. Roughly speaking, 0.5 kilograms of SCP per 1 kilogram of incoming BOD is a starting point for determining output. It’s important to think about BOD as a valuable raw material input, as it feeds the SCP to generate a source of revenue for the food facility.
Treatment cost: The complete wastewater treatment cost, including disposal, waste hauling, and energy is critical for the site to understand because it helps determine a net unit cost per ton to process the SCP. For example, food and beverage wastewater tends to possess high liquid content and is often transported to an offsite location for treatment or is sent to a local municipality for treatment. Avoiding these hauling and treatment costs can result in big savings under the iCell program and thus a lower cost of production for the SCP.
Partners who understand both wastewater treatment and the feed ingredient industry can provide the greatest synergy. The objective is to create a fermentation biomass with the highest possible nutrient value such that the SCP has the highest feed value. A comprehensive treatment and production system will ensure that the process creates this high-quality SCP, and then it is also important to understand the feed ingredient industry, including where and how to use the SCP.
“iCell takes a very different approach when compared to newer companies that have been featured in the news and try to produce SCPs from natural gas or oil,” adds Rottmann. “iCell believes that natural gas and oil are better suited for home energy applications, not as food for bacteria. iCell has developed a commercial-scale business that recovers lost nutrients from food and feed facilities with a truly sustainable approach and with a lower cost of capital per ton of SCP produced.”
Completing the cycle
Livestock processing companies with rendering operations and wastewater are in the enviable position to control the entire
cycle and have an incredibly cost-effective ingredient to go back into their own feeds. Producing their own SCP can replace other expensive functional ingredients such as nucleotide additives, yeast cell wall extracts, peptides, plasma, and blood cells that can range in price from $1,500 up to $4,000 per metric ton. A reduction in feed cost and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) can all be accomplished with the company’s existing resources. Changing Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations can also mean that more material from DAF waters cannot be applied back to the finished meat or bone meals. This nutrient stream can instead be used as the nitrogen and carbon source for the SCP.
Marketing the finished nutrients
With a finished packaged ingredient, the last step of the process is to market or sell the SCP nutrient to feed companies in order to obtain a return on the equipment investment.
iCell’s sister company, Gentech Feed in China, has nursery piglet feeds that currently use SCPs from iCell, and Gentech’s feed group helps commercialize the product with other clients in China. Gentech’s nutritionists and feed professionals have the critical domain knowledge needed to create an effective commercialization strategy.
An effluent site that implements the iCell process has several business options. It can retain iCell to serve as a value-added marketer for the final product. The producer pays a license fee on the production of the protein, and then the producer and iCell jointly determine the commercial outlets. In this arrangement, the food/beverage company would typically purchase, own, and operate the additional equipment to create the SCP.
Another option is to create a joint venture with iCell, where both companies share in the capital and operating cost to manufacture and sell the SCP, with iCell acting as the marketing lead.
Finally, a water-by-volume approach is a third option for companies, where iCell would simply treat the site water for a fee and then manage the SCP protein business.
“The food effluent site really just needs to look at the amount of participation it wants in producing and selling this valuable resource,” said Rottmann. “With a partner like iCell, we are in the feed business, so we understand the importance of quality ingredients for finished compound feeds. Our existing partners find comfort in the fact that we use and understand the SCP product.”
Conclusion
By recovering valuable nutrients found in food and beverage process effluent water and converting them into single-cell proteins for use as feed ingredients for livestock and aquaculture, companies like iCell are helping create a valuable and sustainable source of protein.
For food and feed processing companies, a protein harvest strategy can help meet increasing stringent environmental wastewater treatment regulations, meet corporate sustainability goals, and have a positive impact in company earnings.
Author’s Note
Water industry advocate Tom Beckman is the chief executive officer of 28 Power Communications, based in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Visit www.Gentech China.com for more information on iCell and the rest of the Shanghai Gentech Industries Group.
Source：World Water
