Black & Veatch achieves milestone with commercial-scale alternative animal feed production facility

With demand for protein from the world’s rapidly growing population expected to rise, commissioning is now underway at what is claimed to be the world's first industrial-scale FeedKind facility in Chongqing, China.

The facility, designed and built ahead-of-schedule by a consortium of Black & Veatch and Shanghai LBT Engineering & Technology Co, will produce 20,000 tons of low-carbon animal feed annually.

The facility was developed by Calysseo Chongqing Co, a joint venture between worldwide animal nutrition leader Adisseo and protein innovator Calysta.

FeedKind is an alternative feed ingredient for the aquaculture and animal feed industry produced via natural fermentation that does not use arable land, animal or plant ingredients, and uses very little water in its production. The global aquaculture market was estimated to be US$9 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to reach a size of over US$240 billion by 2027.

"Without innovating and producing alternative proteins, the world’s ever-growing population and appetite for protein-rich diets will place unsustainable pressure on our existing food chains," highlighted Graham Aylen, Project Director, Calysseo. "Having Black & Veatch in our corner allowed us to deliver this new technology at commercial scale confidently, safely and to schedule, helping us achieve an important milestone in humanity’s race to create tomorrow’s more sustainable and secure food supply."

The consortium executed the full engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) scope for the facility located in the Changshou Economic and Technological Development Area (CETDA), Chongqing Province, China.

As the consortium leader, Black & Veatch provided project management, process design and global procurement expertise. The company provided overall project management and procurement for tagged equipment, instrumentation and control systems. The project was delivered ahead-of-schedule and recorded more than 1.3 million reportable accident- and incident-free hours.

"This inspiring project was only realized by bringing together biotechnology, gas processing and sustainable engineering expertise from across our global organization, combined with an innovative and collaborative client, backed by a great local team and partner," added Narsingh Chaudhary, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Black & Veatch. "This first-of-a-kind facility was delivered safely, on time and in the midst of the global pandemic adding to an already impressive result."

Shanghai LBT Engineering and Technology Co provided local engineering design, permitting and construction expertise.

Calysseo will now plan to advance to the next phase of the development to produce a further 80,000 tons of FeedKind a year.