As biorefinery specialists, biomega® has years of experience in the development of sustainable, zero waste systems for the delivery of high-quality products for human and pet nutrition.
By repurposing high quality marine ingredients, we are driving key issues around sustainability, while our innovative process design enables the transformation of previously unused raw materials into high value nutritional ingredients.
With up to 12 million tonnes of marine side streams uncollected from processing plants around the world1, there are fantastic growth opportunities for the sector – working towards a common goal of enabling zero-waste processing streams.
Hirtshals Biorefinery
At biomega®, our continued focus on sustainability resulted in several big wins for us in 2022. This includes the completion of our new, state-of-the-art biorefinery in Hirtshals, Denmark, with the facility driving new energy-efficient technologies.
The new facility will extend our capacity by a minimum of 20k MT raw materials to grow our plans in the premium human nutrition market, while supporting petfood nutrition applications. The site is optimally located near our stock supply and is an important gateway for salmon into Europe. As such, it will now enable expansion of our current production capacity and support plans to grow our new salmon peptide range.
Production of our novel SalMe® Peptide products are expected in the first quarter of 2023. These innovative peptides are 100% water soluble and sustainable, consisting of salmon peptides and free amino acids – produced from fresh Atlantic salmon raw materials.
A European Grant
We are also proud that we have secured a three-year multi-million EUR grant from the European Commission. As part of its LIFE Programme, the Life CONQUER project forms a key part of our company’s strategic focus and is targeted at delivering a circular methodology within the farmed salmon value chain. The funding will enable us to continue driving momentum of underutilised side food streams for human consumption.
As part of the project’s scope, LIFE CONQUER aims to demonstrate large-scale salmon peptide and oil production through a circular methodology. It is envisaged that the new plant will impact on processing sustainability by reducing the carbon footprint of the salmon value chain significantly.
While still in its initial stages, funding is set to run until August 2025, and is a collaborative effort with ASC and MSC certified Danish processing partner, Vega Salmon. As part of this funding, we will develop and demonstrate innovative solutions for extracting proteins from salmon bones, in-situ spray drying and inbound coordination for raw materials at the new Hirtshals biorefinery.
The collaboration with Vega Salmon and LIFE CONQUER will enable us to actively solve challenges within the salmon processing industry – creating a lasting impact for a cleaner planet by significantly reducing greenhouse gases, thermal energy and bio-waste while increasing water efficiency rates.
Investment in biomega®
None of this would have been possible without the initial financing by our owner AMERRA, having invested additional capital for the implementation of the Hirtshals biorefinery, alongside Natixis Investment Managers affiliated asset manager Mirova Natural Capital.
In 2023, we are excited to grow on our existing success and we will continue to enforce our commitment to the development and supply of sustainable salmon peptides for human and pet nutrition. We are thrilled about the opportunities that 2023 will bring to us all!
References
- IFFO, April 2022
*Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
