The Grain Gain: Could Barley Protein Revolutionise The Aquafeed Sector?

“Getting into aquaculture feeds was inspired by a\r\nconversation – over a beer – with Dr Rick Burrows, a well-known nutritionist\r\nwho has been in the USDA-ARS, who\r\ntold us about the issues surrounding anti-nutritionals in soy,” explains Bob\r\nKearns, the easy-going co-founder of the Montana-based firm.

Kearns and business partner Cliff Bradley decided that they\r\ncould combine their knowledge in engineering and biochemistry to look into ways\r\nof improving one of the great aquafeed conundrums.

Bob Kearns, co-founder of Montana Microbial Products

“We looked at using microbes to remove anti-nutritionals\r\nfrom soy, but fish refused to eat the treated soy. As a result we next looked\r\nto alternative raw materials and realised barley could be a good candidate, as\r\nit contains no anti-nutritionals. However, we then needed to find a way of\r\nincreasing the protein content from 12 to 60 percent,” he explains.

This was where Kearns’ and Bradley’s experience in chemical\r\nengineering and biochemistry – in particular specialist knowledge of enzymes –\r\ncame into play. And they soon developed a (now patented) process to separate\r\nthe protein fraction from the rest of the barley, which largely consists of a\r\nmixture of starch, beta-glucans and cellulose.

The end result, Kearns explains, was a process that turned\r\nthe barley into a barley protein concentrate (BPC) containing 65 percent\r\nprotein for use in aquafeeds, as well as a valuable “co-product” in the form of\r\na “very pure stream” of glucose from the starch which has a number of\r\ncommercial uses – from adding to terrestrial animal feeds, to polyols, to the\r\ncomparatively low value ethanol.

“Barley grows in\r\nplaces other crops don’t grow – unlike much of the soy sector it does not\r\ncontribute to deforestation as it grows in countries such as Norway, the UK,\r\nFrance and Spain. It’s also non-GM, it has a short growing season and needs\r\nfewer chemical fertilisers and pesticides than most other cereal crops,” notes\r\nKearns.

And, he adds, it has a natural range that is well suited to\r\nservicing the UK and Norway’s salmon feed mills.

“It would be easy to transport in Norway, for example, with\r\na much smaller carbon footprint than soy,” Kearns reflects.

He also lists a number of other advantages to the use of BPC\r\nin aquafeeds:

“We’ve conducted extensive trials on a number of species and\r\ncan demonstrate that it’s equivalent to fishmeal in terms of growth rates, FCRs\r\nand protein availability. It also has benefits in terms of water quality: when\r\ntrout are fed a soy-based diet, the faeces consist of very fine particles, a\r\ncondition is similar to diarrhoea. The fine particles don’t settle well,\r\ncausing problems in raceways, re-circulating aquaculture systems and water\r\nquality in general. The faecal matter produced by fish fed with diets that\r\nincorporate BPC is more similar to that produced by fishmeal diets - ie large\r\nand solid – rather than SPC diets.

“Another advantage is that it only contains a 10th of the\r\nphosphorous of fishmeal, and the phosphorus it does contain is highly\r\ndigestible, which further reduces the environmental impact.”

Kearns established a pilot plant in his native Montana to\r\nproduce his BPC three years ago, which has successfully and steadily been\r\nproducing about a tonne a day since coming online. This has allowed MMP to\r\nproduce sufficient feed for trials, including a commercial grow-out trial\r\ninvolving 375,000 rainbow trout at Clear\r\nSprings, the USA’s largest trout producer, in Idaho,

“We settled on a 30 percent BPC inclusion rate, which is\r\nmuch higher than the 15 percent rate normally used for SPC [soy protein\r\nconcentrate], in the diets from fry to harvest,” explains Kearns. “There was no\r\ndifference in FCR, growth or taste compared to fish reared alongside them in\r\nadjoining pens whose diets included a conventional proportion of fishmeal.”

This is impressive, not least because Kearns is aiming to\r\nsell his BPC at the same price as the soy protein concentrate equivalent,\r\nrather than the $1,500 or so per tonne that can be expected for fishmeal,\r\nmeaning that adopting it could dramatically reduce feed costs.

The 12-week growth trial suggested that diets containing a\r\nmixture of fishmeal and barley protein concentrate were the best for growth

Now that the process and the results have been demonstrated\r\nMMP is now looking to scale up dramatically, and he aims to kick this off with\r\nthe construction of a $35 million facility that is capable of producing 30,000\r\ntonnes of BPC, as well as a projected EBITDA of $26 million, a year. Bearing in\r\nmind the natural growing range of barley and the two core products resulting\r\nfrom the process, he has his sights set on a particular region.

“We want to be close to the barley, the feed mills and also\r\nclose to a market for our glucose stream, and are currently looking at existing\r\nfermentation plants within Europe,” he explains.

In order to help attract investors Montana Microbials joined\r\nthe latest Hatch cohort, which\r\nis currently based in Hawaii, and Kearns is finding it an interesting\r\nexperience.

“I’ve started several successful companies before, but I’m\r\n67 now,” chuckles Kearns, “and I’m in need of a crash course in 21st century\r\ncommunications, to help give my idea the sort of exposure needed by start-ups\r\nthese days.”

“I’m also having to convince people that I’m actually\r\nworking,” he adds, “which can be hard to do when it’s 84 degrees here in Hawaii\r\nand we’re based right on the ocean!”.

Nevertheless, despite his laid-back persona, Kearns has both\r\nambition and a business model with considerable promise.

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“I like to refer to it as a win-win-win-win: we’re able to\r\npay the farmers a premium price for their barley; we can supply the aquafeed\r\nmanufacturers with a quality protein at a competitive price; we can help the\r\nenvironment; and our investors will make money,” he concludes.

Source : The Fish Site