SylPlant’s 1st General Assembly: Key progress and highlights

The SylPlant project held its 1st General Meeting on April 23rd and 24th in Paris. This event was the opportunity for project’s partners to exchange on the past progresses and prepare the next steps. To know more about it, check the content below!

The General Assembly was organized by our coordinator Arbiom in Paris on April 23rd and 24th. This significant 2-days together marked our first in-person meeting since the project’s kick-off in June 2023, offering a valuable opportunity for all partners to discuss the overall progress of SylPlant and the next steps coming.

The first meeting day was dedicated to presentations led by the 9 work package leaders to discuss the work performed for the different project tasks, milestones and deliverables. Each of those partner had a 30-minute time slot to present their slides to update the consortium members and answer their questions.

The General assembly represents the perfect occasion to organize workshops to gather partners’ perspectives on different subjects. Heiko Keller and Hanna Karg from IFEU conducted a workshop on life cycle assessment. Marine Bellon from B4C organized a workshop on the project’s communication strategies, where she explained the insights of social media algorithms and so provided partners with key insights to enhance the effectiveness of their efforts and boost the reach of our social media content.

The first day ended with a business dinner in Paris, providing partners with an opportunity to share a convivial time. Members of SylPlant met again the following day in Arbiom’s office to attend thematic sessions and meetings.

Proud of the work already performed, the consortium is looking forward to continuing its journey toward the opening of Arbiom’s first large-scale biorefinery.

Special thanks to Arbiom team for their exceptional organization of this event.

Stay tuned on SylPlant’s social media to be updated on the project’s news and results as we are approaching the end of the first year of collaboration.

The SylPlant project reveals its first official video

The SylPlant project proudly unveiled its first official video at the bioeconomy conference BIOKET in Reims, followed by a presentation at the project’s General Assembly in Paris. This dynamic motion design video provides a comprehensive overview of the SylPlant project, highlighting its pivotal role in advancing sustainable protein production in Europe.

This 2-min motion design video showcases the SylPlant project’s applications, impacts, and how a collaborative consortium is essential for its success. The video highlights how the SylPlant project aims to build and operate a pioneering biorefinery that transforms sugars derived from agricultural and wood by-products into protein-rich ingredients through yeast fermentation for the food and feed markets. This flagship plant will reach an annual production of 10.000 tons of ingredients per year at full capacity to meet the growing demand for natural, high-quality, and sustainable food products in the market. The project brings together 17 European partners spanning the entire food and feed value chain, ranging from feedstocks manufacturers to retailers.

The video introduces key facts and statistics about the state of protein production in Europe, focusing on sustainability issues within the value chain. It reveals that 75% of protein sources used in animal nutrition is imported, contributing to 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This underscores the urgent need for a new production approach. The video then explains the concept and objectives of SylPlant, focusing on the plant’s construction. Beyond this, it provides insight of the consortium’s collaborative approach, and the benefits of partnering with stakeholders across the entire value chain to bring Yusto and SylPro to the market.

This motion design was looping on screens at the BIOKET bioeconomy conference in March on the CBE JU stand showcasing the French CBE JU Flagships. It was then premiered in front of all the project partners at the General Assembly in Paris in April. It was finally published on SylPlant’s website, social media, and YouTube Channel the week after the General Assembly.

Interested by the project? Follow the SylPlant’s LinkedIn page to stay informed on its progress and receive updates on the latest developments.

The SylPlant project reveals its first official video

The SylPlant project proudly unveiled its first official video at the bioeconomy conference BIOKET in Reims, followed by a presentation at the project’s General Assembly in Paris. This dynamic  motion design video provides a comprehensive overview of the SylPlant project, highlighting its pivotal role in advancing sustainable protein production in Europe.

 

This 2-min motion design video showcases the SylPlant project’s applications, impacts, and how a collaborative consortium is essential for its success. The video highlights how the SylPlant project aims to build and operate a pioneering biorefinery that transforms sugars derived from agricultural and wood by-products into protein-rich ingredients through yeast fermentation for the food and feed markets. This flagship plant will reach an annual production of 10.000 tons of ingredients per year at full capacity to meet the growing demand for natural, high-quality, and sustainable food products in the market. The project brings together 17 European partners spanning the entire food and feed value chain, ranging from feedstocks manufacturers to retailers.

 

The video introduces key facts and statistics about the state of protein production in Europe, focusing on sustainability issues within the value chain. It reveals that 75% of protein sources used in animal nutrition is imported, contributing to 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions. This underscores the urgent need for a new production approach. The video then explains the concept and objectives of SylPlant, focusing on the plant’s construction. Beyond this, it provides insight of the consortium’s collaborative approach, and the benefits of partnering with stakeholders across the entire value chain to bring Yusto and SylPro to the market.

This motion design was looping on screens at the BIOKET bioeconomy conference in March on the CBE JU stand showcasing the French CBE JU Flagships. It was then premiered in front of all the project partners at the General Assembly in Paris in April. It was finally published on SylPlant’s website, social media, and YouTube Channel the week after the General Assembly.

Interested by the project? Follow the SylPlant’s LinkedIn page to stay informed on its progress and receive updates on the latest developments.

SylPlant project was officially launched in June 2023

SylPlant partners gathered all together for a kick-off meeting on June 14th, 2023.

The SylPlant project, which brings together 17 key European actors of the bioeconomy, was successfully launched in June 2023 in Paris. The kick-off meeting was the opportunity for the partners to meet in person and discuss the main tasks that will be managed over the next 3 years.

The project aims to build and operate Arbiom’s first of its kind factory to produce the new generation of sustainable protein-rich ingredients for food and feed applications. This flagship plant will reach an annual production of 10,000 tons of Yusto© (for food) and SylPro© (for feed), to meet the growing demand for natural, high-quality ingredients in the market.

The partners are spanning the entire food and feed value chain, ranging from feedstocks manufacturers to retailers. Applications will target various markets such as meat and dairy analogs for food, petfood and aquafeed for animal nutrition.

Duration: 36 months (2023 – 2026)

Total budget: € 23M

The project will last three years, from June 2023 to May 2026, and has a total budget cost of 23 million euros. SylPlant is funded with 14 million euros grant from the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU)  under grant agreement No 101112555. CBE JU is a public-private partnership between the European Union and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), an organization that connects large and small/medium enterprises, research institutions, universities and public and private bodies at European level involved in the development of the circular bioeconomy.

The primary objective of the SylPlant project is to establish a pioneering production plant near Lyon (France), to create proteins ingredients from different kinds of feedstocks. This entails the conversion of sustainable sugars, agricultural side streams, and wood by-products into sustainable, high-quality, and tasty protein-rich ingredients. The consortium aims to achieve the building of the plant to reach an annual production of 10,000 tons of ingredients.

 

Towards a sustainable protein production

This innovative approach to build the future of protein-rich ingredients production addresses several socio-environmental challenges:

  • The growing demand for non-animal sourced protein in food products
  • The current European Union protein importation: 3/4 of the animal feed protein resources needed are imported, which intensifies pressure on natural resources, and leads to significant greenhouse gas emissions.

The SylPlant project represents a significant step toward the shift from traditional protein to locally produced sustainable alternative proteins. This transition aims to reduce the EU’s reliance on imports. Ultimately, the SylPlant project has the objective to produce protein ingredients and derivatives with minimal environmental impact, thereby contributing to the local and European economy and enhancing competitiveness. It also seeks to promote public awareness and acceptance of bio-based solutions.

 

An ambitious flagship

SylPlant follows the successful Sylfeed project, a four-year project funded by the Bio-based Industry Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), in which Arbiom effectively scaled up its technology and demonstrated the value of its protein-rich ingredients.

With well-established products, this project coupled with the financial support from CBE JU, is a distinctive opportunity to shift from development and lay the foundation for large-scale industrial production under high-quality standards. This transition enables the ingredients to finally meet market demands. It therefore makes SylPlant a pivotal milestone in the process of bringing SylPro© and Yusto© to the market.

Interested by the project? Follow the SylPlant’s project LinkedIn page to stay tuned to its progress and receive updates on the latest developments.

Read the press release