Valorization of canola meal by developing canola meal extract as a microbial media for fermentation
Term: 3 years, beginning in 2023
Status: Ongoing
Researcher(s): Bishnu Acharya, University of Saskatchewan
SaskCanola Investment: $115,767
Total Project Cost: $382,000
Funding Partners: TBC
Objectives
Development of a sustainable extraction process for producing canola meal (CM) based microbial media for fermentation.
Lab-scale demonstration on supplementation of canola meal extracts (CME) in microbial media for industrial fermentations.
Pilot scale demonstration and financial analysis.
Project Description
Saskatchewan produces 11 million MT of canola, of which only 4 million MT are processed here, producing approximately 2.2 million MT of CM (considering the oil content of canola as high as 45%). With ongoing investment in the canola processing facilities, it is expected that the province will process about 85% of its produce within 2030. As per the current strategy, most of these CM as a by-product of canola processing facilities are sold as animal feed at extensively substandard prices, i.e., approximately $450 per MT. Reports indicate that CM is nutritionally rich and composed of high protein content, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and metal ions. Extracting these nutrients from the CM and its utilization as a medium supplement for microbial bioprocessing could result in a high-value addition. The fermentation product market is projected to reach USD225 billion by 2026. The fermentation medium accounts for a significant portion (60-77%) of the production cost, also verified by the industry partner (Noblegen Inc.) in this project. With $500/ton of canola meal price and assuming 50% as production cost and 40% yield, the cost per ton of canola meal extracts is $1,875/ton. It is substantially lower than yeast extracts at $100,000 to $300,000/ton. The potential of replacing yeast extracts and other organic nutrition sources with CME could disrupt the microbial media market. The cost of extraction processes, and yield of various products with CME, will be validated in the proposed project. If successful in year 3, a new company incubated/supported in/by Food Center can be created with Noblegen Inc. being beta customers. This way, the research outcomes can be quickly moved to commercialization. The increased value of canola meals will bring additional revenue to the processors and farmers in Saskatchewan.
Currently CM is statured as substandard biomass with a market value as low as $ 450 per MT, although being nutritionally rich. The proposed research project aims at the valorization of CM to CME. Techniques of microbial nutrient extraction from the CM and its utilization as microbial culture media will be investigated on the technical and financial aspects. Following is the major information gap for the utilization of CM as a microbial medium. Although CM has a good profile for microbial nutrition in terms of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and trace metals, less effort has been made on extract development for culture medium supplements. Microbial bioprocess often requires undefined media supplements to enhance the growth and productivity of several microbial species. These are termed 'undefined' as their nutritional composition could be poorly characterized, whereas their supplementation in media fulfills the demand for one or more nutrition elements in the form of an organic source of nitrogen, vitamins, minerals, and trace metals. Conventionally, a microbial prerequisite of this nutrition is often accomplished by adding yeast extract (YE) supplement to culture media for fermentation. YE is considered among the most costly ingredient of microbial media, with market prices ranging from $100 to $300/kg, adding to the overall cost of fermentation. Although the total content of nutrients varies between YE and CM, they have similar macro and micro-nutrient compositions in terms of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, and other constituents such as choline and carbohydrates. Research initiatives and reports on similar work on nutrition extraction for microbial media are available for several oil seeds such as soybean, cotton seed, rapeseed, etc. Rapeseed is being extensively investigated in nutrition extraction from its meal and its utilization of microbial processes. The research effort in developing CME could result in the utilization and valorization of this substandard biomass. Changes in the composition and content of nutrients after extraction and hydrolysis procedures are not known for CME. CM comprises a complex network of lignocellulosic biomass where protein and other nutrients (non-fiber carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals) are trapped. To achieve maximum yield, biomass should undergo treatment processes. These treatments are associated with extreme pH, temperature, and/or pressure conditions. Post-treatment modification may lead to beneficial and/or detrimental modification of the nutrient composition. Increased yield of nutritional components in the CME, along with hydrolyzed protein and carbohydrates in the form of amino acids, peptides, and non-fiber sugars, could be among the expected beneficial modification.
On the other hand, heat-associated treatment may result in proportional damage to heat-liable amino acids and vitamins. To validate the extraction efficiency, different treatment techniques in stand-alone mode and their combinations need to be investigated. Moreover, there is a dire need to analyze nutritional composition after each step of pretreatment and extraction. Extensive studies on the extraction techniques and pretreatment to minimize the antinutritional components (eg sinapine) and maximize the nutrition yield is the base objective of this proposed research. Effects of CM or CME in microbial growth and productivity have been least investigated. Each microbe responds differently to different media, hence it is important to optimize the process and study the growth to validate the effectiveness of the media. Successful supplementation of nutrition in microbial media through several seed meal extracts such as rapeseed meal extract (RSME), soybean meal extract, cotton seed extract, corn steep liquor, jatropha seed extract, malt extract, defatted brebra flour, rice bran extract, etc., have been reported. During the bioprocessing with several microbes, these extracts have shown positive results in the growth and productivity of the microbes. Rapeseed has been investigated for extract development from its meal by the Thünen-Institute of Agricultural Technology, Germany. It was reported that this extract can replace about 80%-100% of yeast extract for L-lactic acid and 1,3-propanediol production, respectively. However, vitamin B ranges and amino acids, such as cysteine and tryptophan, are limited in so-developed RSME, which need to be supplemented separately. CME would be considered an undefined media as it would contain several classes of macro-nutrient, micro-nutrient, and vitamin supplements. Moreover, the nutrient composition may vary from batch to batch seed harvest and oil processing. The complexity of CME as a medium component depends on the degree of hydrolysis of macromolecules, such as proteins and carbohydrates, in the final product. Depending on the microbial classes, utilization of these nutrients may vary. Microbial responses to the CME rely on their inherent enzymatic ability to hydrolyze these complex macromolecules. Similarly, the tolerance level of microbial species towards antinutritional components could be another factor for the standardization of CME. Several works are being conducted on fungal pretreatment of CM to maximize the nutrition extraction from oil seed meal. Therefore, the proposed project takes an initiative to investigate the response of major classes of microbial species, including fungi, bacteria, and algae, towards CME supplement to validate its effectiveness in microbial fermentation.