NouriTech and its lead investors, Calysta Inc. and Cargill, have broken ground on a 37-acre Memphis feed production facility. The plant will be home to the world’s largest gas fermentation operation that will produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, a nourishing and sustainable feed ingredient for fish, livestock and pets, using its proprietary technology.
“FeedKind protein is a new sustainable feed ingredient that is critical to helping meet sharply rising global demand for food,” said Alan Shaw, Ph.D., Calysta president and CEO. “We are delighted to partner with Cargill and the Memphis community to launch construction of our first commercial-scale manufacturing plant. This is the next step in bringing this important product to markets throughout the world.”
More about the facility
Upon completion, NouriTech will occupy 37 acres of Cargill’s 69-acre property on President’s Island, employ approximately 160 full-time team members and produce approximately 200,000 metric tons of FeedKind annually. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed in 2018, with the plant online in 2019. The second phase of construction will be completed in 2020.
NouriTech’s 37-acre site will feature:
- A one-story administration building that will house technicians, engineers, supervisory and management staff.
- Twenty fermenters, each similar in size to a football field end zone. Two fermenters are expected to be installed in the first phase of construction and up to an additional 18 in the second phase.
- Several dryers, each approximately the height of a six-story building. One dryer will be built and used for the first phase of construction and the remaining dryers will be built in phase two.
- Several kilometers of piping.
- Various processing, filtration and product handling and loading equipment.