Green Plains and BioProcess Algae complete 1st round of poultry feed trials

The algae strains produced for the feed trials demonstrated high energy and protein content that was readily available, similar to other high value feed products used in the feeding of poultry today.

The algae strains used in the feed trials were grown in BioProcess Algae’s Grower Harvester reactors co-located with Green Plains’ ethanol plant in Shenandoah, Iowa. The test was conducted in conjunction with the University of Illinois led by Dr. Carl M. Parsons, a leading expert in the field of poultry sciences.

"This was the first time we tested algae as a poultry feed-product and many of the qualities found were similar to high protein soymeal, but with higher energy content," said Dr. Parsons.

"Based on these first-round tests, we will continue the development of this and other high-quality animal feed products from our algae. We will proceed with further testing for poultry and begin evaluating a replacement product for fishmeal," said Tim Burns, Chief Executive Officer of BioProcess Algae. "We can now look into the opportunity to use algae as a ‘carrier’ for higher value products going into poultry feed such as Omega-3s."

"We believe this may be one of the first times that carbon dioxide absorbed from an industrial source was used to grow and harvest algae that performed well in feed trials," added Burns. "With our Grower Harvester reactors at commercial scale, we will continue to focus on driving our cost of production down with a larger build-out of reactors at the Green Plains Shenandoah ethanol plant over the next several months in order to profitably supply feedstock for food, feed and fuel markets."

In addition to the high energy and protein content, the testing found amino acid profiles similar to existing feed components. The University of Missouri analyzed the results and provided an independent third-party  validation.