Omega-3 feed ‘breakthrough innovation’

DSM Nutritional Products and Evonik Industries plan to build a $200 million commercial-scale facility in the US to produce highly concentrated algal oil.

The companies said: “This breakthrough innovation will, for the first time, enable the production of omega-3 fatty acids for animal nutrition without using fish oil from wild caught fish, a finite resource. Evonik and DSM’s alternative omega-3 source is the first to offer both EPA and DHA and will be aimed at initial applications in salmon aquaculture and pet food.

“The companies will together build a commercial-scale production facility in the United States, which will be built at an existing site of Evonik and is expected to come on stream in 2019. The joint venture plans to invest around $200 million in the facility.

“The initial annual production capacity will meet roughly 15 per cent of the total current annual demand for EPA and DHA by the salmon aquaculture industry. The set-up of the joint venture, to be named Veramaris and headquartered in the Netherlands, will be finalized subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.”

DSM has expertise in the cultivation of marine organisms including algae and long-established biotechnology capabilities in development and operations, whilst Evonik’s focus has been on developing industrial biotechnology processes and operating competitively large-scale manufacturing sites for fermentative amino acids.

The statement from the companies added: “The vision of salmon farming without using fish-based resources is – for the first time – becoming realistic. By replacing fish oil in salmon feed with this EPA and DHA rich alternative, the fish-in-fish-out ratio could be reduced significantly. This alternative will enable the aquaculture industry to continue to grow sustainably.

“Worldwide fish oil production is approximately one million metric tons per year. Most of the fish oil is used in aquaculture, mainly for fat-rich fish species, such as salmon. The limited wild fish stocks restrict the amount of fish oil available and thus the growth of the aquaculture industry.

Since July 2015, Evonik and DSM have jointly worked on the development of products and the manufacturing process and explored opportunities for commercialization. Both companies achieved positive results in the development of the product while extensively working with the entire value chain, including fish feed producers, fish farmers and retailers.

The companies have successfully produced pilot-scale quantities of the algal oil at DSM’s production facility in Kingstree, South Carolina. Customers will be able to receive sizeable quantities of the product for market development while the construction of the new manufacturing plant is underway.