Converting coal to animal feed: Local student researchers, biotech startup poised for a break-through

A team of researchers at the University of Alberta are working with clean energy and biotech startup Cvictus. (Supplied)

An Alberta clean energy and biotech startup has teamed up with students at the University of Alberta to help advance research in the Agri-food industry and use coal to make animal feed.

Cvictus, headquartered in Calgary, has been exploring how to revitalize an old fermentation process that converts methanol extracted from coal into a high-protein material used in livestock feed.

• Download our app to get Edmonton alerts on your device

With Mitacs, a program that connects companies with researchers in Canada, Cvictus and a handful of U of A students are exploring ways to improve methanol fermentation and recycle more of the liquid waste into food for animals.

“The product coming out of the fermenter looks like toothpaste before it’s dried and turned into the single cell protein powder,” Domenic Marano, a U of A Master’s student in bioresources technology, said in a press release.

“Back in the ‘80s, there was a process for recycling that spent liquid – which could be as much as 2.8 million tonnes of water per year – back into the fermenter. Our goal is to find a similar recycling solution for the new, modernized process.”

Cvictus recently received a US$1.7-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the company says it is applying to use the funds to move the process to the university’s Agri-Food Discovery Place where student researchers can work on feed trials.

“We have giant dreams and expectations for where this technology will go, but as a startup, we can’t feasibly employ the resources required to scale,” Cvictus director of biotechnology and carbon reduction Katrina Stewart said in a statement.

“Academic researchers provide the innovation, expertise and drive we need to help move the needle forward on this exciting technology.”

Marano says the opportunity to work as a student with industry professionals that are exploring emerging technology is incredible.

“Not only does it allow me to move through a simulated work experience with constant check-ins and meetings with industry, but I also get to watch the project come to fruition and be a direct part of that,” he said.

So far, according to Cvictus, the student researchers have “successfully conducted methanol fermentation at bench scale” like how sugar is used to make yogurt.

Stewart added the next step is regulatory approval with trials on broiler hens and pigs set to start later this year.

“Technically, we could use any methanol source as feedstock for our process and it would still be beneficial to the agricultural industry,” she said. “But the real gains come when we pair our ultra-low-cost, low-carbon upstream technology with the fermentation.”

“We truly aim to create carbon negative living.”