Agriculture and food product giant Cargill is planning to invest in what would be the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, Tennessee. Business partner Calysta, Inc. and several other third-party institutions are also involved in the deal.
The facility would be utilized to produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, “a family of sustainable, traceable nutritional ingredients for fish, livestock and pets,” according to the company. It would be built on Cargill’s 69-acre property on President’s Island, Tennessee, which is already being used to produce corn oils and to distribute and store sweeteners. Investors expect that the facility will be up and running by late 2018, and producing some 20,000 metric tons per year of FeedKind protein at first, then 200,000 metric tons per year once full capacity is reached.
“Cargill has been a part of the Memphis community for 40 years. With the strong support of the state of Tennessee, Shelby County and City of Memphis, we are pleased that the venture chose to locate the facility in Memphis,” said Cargill’s global vice president of bioindustrial, Brian Silvey, in a press release. “The venture’s building of a state-of-the-art fermentation facility on the existing Cargill Memphis site reaffirms our commitment to the community and state and our pledge to strategically invest in aquaculture as an ever increasingly important source of protein.”
At first, the facility is expected to create 75 permanent jobs. Once it becomes fully operational, that number will jump to 160, according to Cargill and Calysta. Both companies jointly market FeedKind protein, which is produced using a unique gas fermentation process.
“With a proven and proprietary fermentation platform, Calysta is introducing a scalable and disruptive protein source critical to meeting the needs of a growing global population,” said Calysta President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Shaw. “Partnering with Cargill, a leader in fermentation and protein production, and others to invest in the establishment of the venture as the first U.S. manufacturing plant to commercially produce FeedKind protein, significantly accelerates FeedKind protein’s launch in the aquaculture industry at commercial scale. This venture is an important first step to deploying this technology globally.”
It’s been a big year already for FeedKind protein developments – in September 2016, Calysta opened a research and development and market introduction facility in the United Kingdom to produce samples of the product.
Cargill employs approximately 275 employees in its 14 Tennessee facilities, which focus on corn, cotton, metals, grains and farmer service.
