ALTERNATIVE PROTEINS ▶▶▶


over $ 1.5 billion. If these plans work out, Russia will be able to swiftly regain its position as the world’s leader of biopro- tein production. In 2017, it was announced that the second plant was to be launched in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Tatarstan Republic, Russia. The investment cost was estimated at Rub 18 billion ($ 270 million) and produc- tion is expected to reach 100,000 tonnes per year (to be ob- tained from 180 million cubic metres of natural gas). In April 2018, the company also signed an letter of intent with the government of Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, to build another 100,000-tonnes plant for Rub 10 billion ($ 135 million). How- ever, there was no further progress on either project over the past few years. There is no information as to when these two plants might become operational.


Russia is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas.


biosynthesis from methane. “When we talk about oil and coal production, we are talking about associated petroleum gas and coal mine methane – which is often burned or emitted into the atmosphere, causing significant harm to the environ- ment. We are developing, among other things, mobile com- plexes that can operate in remote locations during oil production,” Kutafin said. Metanica aims to promote its tech- nology not only in Russia but also abroad. “Quite a few re- quests to use our developments have come from abroad. Our team sees itself as an integral part of humanity, and so our technology and products will be available all over the world,” Kutafin said.


Unibio’s foothold in Russia Metanica is not the only company in Russia interested in Bio- protein. In 2019, Protelux completed a 6,000 tonne per year methane-to-feed-protein plant in Russia, based on technolo- gy from the Danish company Unibio. Four fermenters encom- passing methanotrophic bacteria that absorb natural gas have been constructed as part of the Ivangorod facility not far from the Russian border with the European Union, the company said in a statement. The Danish company’s U-Loop technology enables natural gas to be converted into a sin- gle-cell protein – UniProtein – to be further used in feed. These methanotrophic bacteria consume the C1 connections in the methane gas in order to grow. They are transformed into protein granules thanks to a traditional downstream pro- cess. This patented technology is a vertical pipe structure that provides optimal growth conditions for the bacteria. This is a more efficient and faster way of fermenting than horizontal, conventional bioreactors. Protelux has invested some $ 35 million in this project. The company has also unveiled plans to build ten similar plants all over the country in the next decade with a designed production capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year each and with expected revenues of


12 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 7, 2020


Changing competitive environment There are good prospects that the new bioprotein projects will succeed. Nevertheless, this could be difficult, given the expanding fishmeal and soybean meal production capacities in Russia, commented a source in the Russian feed industry. Besides, the biggest agricultural holdings are struggling to achieve complete independence in feedstuff, so they are not very interested in bioprotein, he said. During the past few years, Russian production of fishmeal has been limited to 100,000 tonnes per year. This figure is forecasted to triple over the next few years, as the Russian government has embarked on reform of investment quotas in the fishing industry, offer- ing fishermen quotas in exchange for investments in new vessels or processing infrastructure. Under this programme, Russian fishermen will put 23 fish-processing plants into op- eration in the next few years, including plants for fishmeal production. Russian soybean production totaled 3.08 million tonnes in 2019. This figure has increased by a factor of 3.5 over the past decade and further growth should expand soy- bean meal supplies for the Russian feed industry.


1 tonne of bioprotein could balance 20 tonnes of feed.


PHOTO: GAZPROM


PHOTO: GLAZOVSKY FEED MILL


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