DHA is essential for maternal and child nutrition – but today’s sources are often too costly. acib is developing a circular fermentation platform that converts brewery side streams into a stable, protein-rich yeast ingredient enriched with DHA and other micronutrients. The goal: affordable, vegan, locally producible nutrition without relying on fish oil or algae supply chains.
Background
Technology
acib aims to develop a fermentation platform using the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, specially adapted to brewery-residue-based media. The process combines enzymatic pretreatment of brewery resi-dues, strain development, and fermentation optimization to generate a stable, whole-cell yeast ingredient enriched in DHA.
The concept includes engineering Y. lipolytica for DHA accumulation via a multi-enzyme pathway. Laboratory evolution and process optimi-zation are used to improve robustness on real brewery-derived media.
acib offers:
Yeast strain development for DHA production
Enzymatic pretreatment of brewery residues as fermentation media
Screening and adaptation to partner-specific side streams
Bench-scale fermentation and process optimization
Harvesting, cell disruption and drying toward a stable yeast powder
Analytics for DHA, quality and process KPIs
Technology-transfer for brewery and/or food-production partners
Offer
Experts:
Dr. Petra HeidingerDevelopment status:
Status of the project proposal – Technology Readiness Level 2
(technology concept formulated)
Keywords:
Affordable nutrition, DHA fermentation, Yarrowia lipolytica, Brewery side streams, Brewers’ spent grain, Circular food ingredients, Maternal and child nutrition, Functional foods, LMIC nutrition, Fermentation-based supplements, Technology transfer, Local production, Sustainable biomanufacturing