Protein made from sawdust can be fish feed

MonoCell, a project of the Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), has produced single-cell proteins from sawdust.

Proteins can be used, for example, to produce fish feed, said a Luke press release. This means the forest industry’s side streams would end up for human consumption.

Sawmills in Finland produce 3.3 million cubic metres of sawdust every year. The majority of sawdust is used to produce pulp and energy, while a significant volume remains unused. Therefore, sawdust is nearly regarded as hazardous waste at many sawmills. Now, there might be a solution to deal with the waste – and create additional income for sawmills.

In the process developed by the MonoCell project, sugars found in sawdust are split so that a single-cell organism, in this case yeast, can use the sugar as nutrition. Conditions were adjusted so that the process mainly produces proteins instead of ethanol.

“I’m very happy that as a result of Luke’s multidisciplinary cooperation, we now have a tangible product and an entire process to produce sustainable domestic proteins,” said Risto Korpinen from Luke who heads the project.

Other members of the project team are Lucia Blasco, Rina Bragge, Minna Kahala, Vesa Joutsjoki, Kalle Kaipanen, Marja Kallioinen, Petri Kilpeläinen, Sari Lassila, Jarkko Mäkinen, Nora Pap, Anne Pihlanto, and Jouni Vielma.