Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

A Canadian start-up, Terra Bioindustrial Inc., is creating multi-industry solutions from agrifood waste. Since establishing in 2019, Terra Bio has gone from a lab bench to product validation and is now building a circular economy by redirecting spent food byproducts. The company's unique upcycling platform converts spent grains into a functional plant-based protein called Protina. The separated protein is turned into a dried plant-based protein ingredient, and the sugars are concentrated into a rich fermentation feedstock. Terra Bio is securing funding to support pilot plant production of its food additives. Yet, the production process needs to be optimized and proven financially viable. In collaboration, Terra Bio and Lambton College's Bio-industrial Process Research Centre (BPRC) will focus on scaling up Terra Bio's fermentation and downstream processes needed for large-scale manufacturing of their Protina and Recyclose products. Utilizing BPRC's state-of-the-art infrastructure, equipment, and expertise, Terra Bio and Lambton can optimize the fermentation process and develop and optimize the downstream purification of the two products. The project will focus on three major milestones including, (1) optimization of glucose and xylose formation from cellulose and hemicellulos hydrolysis; (2) development and optimization of fermentation conditions for formation of the protein Protina from fermented broth; (3) and optimization of Protina product purification and sugar separation from the used fermented broth. The success of the proposed collaborative project will provide Terra with specific fermentation and downstream processing protocols for producing their renewable products. The project results will further improve their process's overall productivity at a pre-commercial scale and support design changes for a commercial-scale planned facility. The increased productivity and yield improvements will also drive down Terra's capital costs and increase its profit margins. The validation of Terra Bio's process will allow Terra to create and hire new positions and anticipates an additional $700,000 by 2023 and 5 million in revenues by 2025.