Technologies for cost-effectively making single-cell protein at an industrial scale

Contamination Control

Bacterial contamination is often the biggest technical problem when using yeasts and green algae in industrial-scale fermentation to produce ethanol, single-cell protein and Omega-3 lipids (including DHA).

We’ve invented two patent-pending technologies for preventing contamination by using urea as the sole nitrogen source along with titanium heat exchangers to reduce leaching of nickel. No acid wash or antibiotics are needed to prevent 100% of all bacterial contamination.

The main yeasts and green algae we are using with these inventions are Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida utilis, Yarrowia lipolytica, Chlorella sorokiniana and Chlorella vulgaris.

Foam Fermentation

Our main patent-pending invention is an aerobic fermenter that uses foam to provide large amounts of oxygen to microorganisms fermenting in the liquid part of foam.

This was first widely used at the sulfite paper mill Zellstofffabrik Waldhof near Mannheim, Germany between 1939 and 1949. This type of fermenter is commonly called a Waldhof Fermenter.

Our invention improves on the Waldhof fermenter in several significant ways, and when used with our contamination control invention allows continuous production of single-cell protein for months at a time.

Omega-3 Lipids

Omega-3 and Omega-6 lipids are essential to human life and are only provided in our diet by plants, animals, some yeasts and some algae.

When people consume too much Omega-6 lipids compared to Omega-3 lipids, people are more likely to have heart problems, high blood pressure, dementia and many other health problems.

The optimal ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is between 2:1 and 1:2, but western diets usually have a ratio of 20:1 or worse, leading to poor health.

Dr. Chris Knobbe - 'Are Vegetable Oils the primary driver of Obesity, Diabetes and Chronic Disease?'

Our foam fermenter can produce Torula (Candida utilis) yeast or green algae with large amounts of Omega-3 lipids, which has been shown to be very nutritious for fish and chicken, and thus makes a more valuable fish and chicken product.

Protein from Natural Gas

The world’s population will increase from 8 Billion to 10 Billion in the next 20 years and an additional 80 g protein per person per day is needed.

This means that the world will need at least another 160 Mt/year of additional protein.

The world has a lot of low-cost natural gas.

It’s possible to make low-cost protein for fish feed and chicken feed from natural gas by fermenting Methylococcus capsulatus.

A foam fermenter is the most efficient way to produce this protein at a large scale because it can do nitrogen fixing from the atmosphere, resulting in contamination control and thus allowing efficient continuous fermentation.

Evolution, not revolution

We are developing technologies for evolving existing fermentation plants, especially in Brazil, USA, EU, India and China, and for future evolution of these fermentation plants to produce single-cell protein from sugars.

Our main technology for existing fermentation plants is a less expensive contamination control technique, which instead of adding things to the fermenter to prevent bacterial growth, it removes something from the fermenter (nickel ions). This eliminates the need for sugarcane ethanol plants to use a sulphuric acid wash when recycling yeast and eliminates the need for US corn ethanol plants to use antibiotics.

Winning the competition

We believe that the best way for a bioethanol plant to survive and prosper in a declining market is to be more innovative than its competitors. In a declining market, only the most efficient plants will survive. We suggest that the best way for a bioethanol plant to innovate is to:

  1. Change to continuous fermentation with yeast recycling, using our contamination control technology. This requires little capital - just enough to change heat exchangers from stainless steel to titanium. It allows recycling yeast without acid treatment and removes the need for antibiotics.

  2. Add on foam fermenters to allow producing both bioethanol and protein from the same sugars. This gives time to develop the market for proteins.

  3. Expand the capacity of the plant to produce more protein from sugars.

How does it work?

At the heart of CelloFuel's groundbreaking technology lies our portable biomass refinery, ingeniously designed to fit within a standard 20 or 40-foot shipping container. This compact yet powerful system is the key to our sustainable production process, transforming carbohydrates and methane into valuable single-cell proteins.

A fermentation plant can be scaled up to tens of thousands of CelloFuel containers, allowing cost-effective fermentation at a large scale.

Who are we?

Hamrick Engineering was founded in 2013 by Edward B. Hamrick.

Edward (Ed) Hamrick graduated with honors from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) with a degree in Engineering and Applied Science. He worked for three years at NASA/JPL on the International Ultraviolet Explorer and Voyager projects and worked for ten years at Boeing as a Senior Systems Engineer and Engineering Manager. Subsequently, Ed worked for five years at Convex Computer Corporation as a Systems Engineer and Systems Engineering Manager. Ed has been a successful entrepreneur for the past 25 years.

Alex Ablaev, MBA, PhD is Sr. Worldwide Business Developer. Alex previously worked for Genencor's enzymatic hydrolysis division, and is the President of the Russian Biofuels Association as well as General Manager of NanoTaiga, a company in Russia using CelloFuel technologies in Russia.

Alan Pryce, CEng is Chief Engineer. Alan is an experienced professional mechanical engineer - Chartered Engineer (CEng) – Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) - with 10+ years’ experience in the mechanical design and project management of factory automation projects in UK and European factories. He has been a Senior Design Consultant and project manager for over 30 years working for Frazer-Nash Consultancy Ltd involved with many design and build contracts in the military, rail, manufacturing, and nuclear industries.

Maria Kharina, PhD, is Sr. Microbiology Scientist. Maria has a PhD in Biotechnology and is a researcher with 10+ years of experience. Maria was a Fulbright Scholar in the USA from 2016-2017.

Dr. Ryan P. O'Connor (www.oconnor-company.com) provides intellectual property strategy consulting and patent prosecution. Dr. O'Connor holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Notre Dame and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota. He has filed more than 1000 U.S. and PCT applications and is admitted to the Patent Bar, United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Presentations

Ed Hamrick made a presentation at GrainTek 2023 in Moscow (English) (Russian). You can watch the presentation here.

Ed Hamrick made a presentation at ProteinTek 2023 in Moscow (English) (Russian). You can watch the presentation here.

We were honored by the presence of Nina Borisovna Gradova (Wikipedia) at our presentation at ProteinTek 2023. She was a leader of the Soviet Union’s successful projects growing single-cell protein on an industrial scale from 1970-1990 and is a legendary microbiologist in Russia with many awards and patents related to making single-cell protein, especially technologies for growing protein from methane. She is also the author of many textbooks in this field.

Her first patent application in this field was in 1970 and her most recent in 2020, a remarkable 50 years of intellectual progress in the field.

She even made some complimentary remarks about our foam fermenter during the question/answer session of the presentation.

Hamrick Engineering Patent Portfolio