Polish rapeseed gold

New technology of obtaining protein from oil plants. It has just been patented by scientists from Łódź – as “Puls Biznesu” newspaper informs. As the daily notes, the next step is building a test biorefinery.

The technology of producing protein from rapeseed may revolutionise the food industry. The inventors, dr Magdalena Kozłowska and dr Piotr Wnukowski, co-owners of NapiFeryn BioTech, convince the substance may be a healthy ingredient of bread, pasta, sweets and also a soy protein substitute.

The main buyer of the NapiFeryn BioTech technology will be oil mills – in the future, protein isolates are to be produced at their premises. The company is going to make profits from licencing the solution that is currently being developed. The potential of the solution created by NapiFeryn BioTech has just been noticed by Wilmar, a company located near Wrocław which specialises in oil plant processing and which invested in the project by taking up shares and becoming a minority shareholder. It will help in commercialising the technology.

– We cannot reveal the size of the investment, but the amount will allow us to finish research and development work and introduce the solution to the market – dr Magdalena Kozłowska assures.

„This is particularly important for those countries that have their own, rich sources of rapeseed, like Poland” – highlights dr Magdalena Kozłowska. As the newspaper states, oil mills may also benefit from the solution by making use of the biomass left over from production – rapeseed pulp.

Currently, NapiFeryn BioTech’s laboratories are situated within the premises of Łódź Bionanopark. It employs their own research and development team, but cooperates with national research institutes as well. In the early stage of the project development, the scientists received a 50 thousand EUR EU grant from the Horizon 2020 programme that finances development of research and innovation. The funding was awarded within the scope of SME Instrument. Another backing came a bit later – the concept caught the attention of Impera Alfa carrying out the „Bridge Alfa” programme of the National Centre for Research and Development. In this round, the company was granted 1 million PLN for developing new technology.

The project also received some additional backing from the National Centre for Research and Development within the „fast track” of the Intelligent Development operational programme. The company was granted a 11.5 million PLN donation which will enable them to construct a demonstration technological line producing protein from rapeseed.

Poland is the fourth largest rapeseed producer in the EU. Rapeseed plants are harvested on nearly 950 thousand hectares across the country, with seed crops of up to 3 million ton a year. In the future, owners of the company would also like to operate outside the country, in the territory of the European Union – in particular on the French and German markets – as well as in the UK, China, India, USA, Canada and Australia.