kg CO2


eq/kg product (dw)


PHOTO: CHAINCRAFT


PARTNER FEATURE ▶▶▶


Sustainable fatty acids from food residues


At Wageningen University a unique technology has been discovered to convert plant-based food residues into valuable organic acids for the animal feed industry: short chain fatty acids (SCFA, e.g. butyric acid) and medium chain fatty acids (MCFA, e.g. caproic acid).


BY JEROEN VAN DORP, CHAINCRAFT S


7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0


1,39 X-Craft


Coconut oil Fatty acids


Palm kernel oil Fatty acids


Petroleum oil Fatty alcohols


- LCA based on operating performance of ChainCraft’s first commercial plant in Amsterdam. - Footprint of X-Craft products based on estimations of further processing in line with conceptual engineering of the ChainCraft Flagship plant.


- Footprint of incumbent vegetable oil FA’s indicate an average figure derived from various sources, none stating exact type of FA’s.


- For Petroleum oil alternatives, only sources indicating the alcohol variants of the FA’s were available. - Cradle-to-gate analysis. The LCA follows the ISO framework and guidelines for performing an LCA (ISO 14040 and 14044), (ISO, 2006a, 2006b) and performed by Blonk Consultants in Q3-2021.


CFA and MCFA products such as butyric acid and caproic acid are traditionally produced from unsus- tainable sources (petroleum, palm oils). The supply and use of these acids results in large amounts of


energy and water consumption, CO2 and other GHG emis- sions; risks land-use changes and depletes natural resources. In addition, there are serious concerns about social issues related to certain palm oil plantations. Besides these clear sustainability challenges, a common concern for purchasers of organic acids is the availability and price volatility of these products. Because of local weather, fluctuating demand levels and var- ying governmental policies (e.g. around biodiesel), the feed industry is more than familiar with the unstable availability and price of palm oil-derived products. In the petroleum sec- tor, the same situation results from oil price fluctuations and


Figure 1 – Reduction of carbon footprint by 40% to 80% Global warming impact


6,3


force majeures at the large chemical production sites such as Houston and Ludwigshafen. Nothing new here so far. This situation has however changed dramatically: the COV- ID-19 situation, the war in Ukraine and the consequent logis- tics drama have now turned this well-known headache into an extreme migraine for the sourcing departments of feed formulators as prices continue to hike and many key organic acid products face supply shortages. It is therefore time for a new generation of organic acids, derived from renewable resources and produced with a far lower carbon footprint.


3,68 2,35


An innovative, sustainable production route for fatty acids solves these challenges Since 2010, ChainCraft has been scaling up a fermentation technology discovered at Wageningen University for con- verting local organic waste streams such as fruit & vegetable residues (e.g. potato peels) into SCFA and MCFA. The fer- mentation process yields large volumes of butyric (C4), and caproic acid (C6). Compared to petroleum and palm oil, plant-based food residues have stable prices and availability and in the Nether- lands alone more than 5 million tonnes are produced annu- ally. Feedstocks are therefore exclusively sourced locally and the two-step fermentation process that ChainCraft operates is efficient and robust. This production route is therefore not challenged by the sustainability, price and availability con- cerns related to petroleum and palm oil-based fatty acid (FA) production. The process is also completely natural as none of the microbes has been modified genetically. A first commercial plant with a capacity of two kilotonnes is operational in Amsterdam, producing these fatty acids in sodium salt form (C-Craft). The second factory with a 20 -kilo- tonne capacity will become operational in 2025 and produce fractionated fatty acids in acid form (X-Craft). A recent LCA assessment by Blonk Consultants (Graph 1) confirms the sus- tainability of this process compared to traditional production routes for SCFA and MCFA.


The functionality of C4 and C6 fatty acids Most farmers nowadays are aware of the value in adding small amounts of SCFA and/or MCFA to the feed or drinking water to support the intestinal health of their livestock. In particular, butyric acid (C4) is well known in the market for its


30 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 30, No. 5, 2022


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