MONTANA BIOAGRICULTURE INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.6

Description

The phase II project is a key element in a larger project to develop value added agricultural manufacturing in rural communities. In phase 1 MBAI demonstrated feasibility of producing multiple high value co-products in a barley biorefinery.The current process uses barley to produce barley protein concentrate, BPC, with ethanol as a co-product. BPC has valuable markets as a protein ingredient in aquaculture feeds. However, the price of ethanol has declined. MBAI demonstrated proof of concept for integrating higher value co-products into the BPC process.Organic acids: In the current process yeast ferment sugars from the process to ethanol. MBAI demonstrated that fungal strains which produce lactic or fumaric acid from these sugars can replace yeast and integrated into the process while maintaining BPC protein concentrations. Organic acids have markets in food processing, animal feeds and as feedstocks for bio based plastics.Beta Glucan: In phase 1 MBAI developed a process for extracting and recovering beta glucan from barley used in the process without affecting BPC protein concentration or yield. Beta glucan markets include health foods, food processing, livestock feed and aquaculture.In Phase II MBAI will scale up the process in the existing BPC pilot plant to generate the data for integrating co-products into commercial BPC production and produce for market tests.Co-products will more than double co-product value ensuring the long-term economic viability of facilities which will create high wage jobs in rural areas and purchase specialty barley from growers at premium prices.