In May 2016, Unibio signed a license agreement with the intent to upscale and commercialize the Unibio U-loop technology allowing the conversion of methane into protein.  Now, a little more than two years later, the first plant is ready for testing and commissioning.

“It has been an exciting process working on this project, and it had been a very steep learning curve," stated Henrik Busch-Larsen, Unibio CEO. "I’ve been the CEO of Unibio for 6 years so naturally getting to the point where you see the fruit of the Unibio and Protelux teams’ labor in the shape of four huge U-shaped bio-reactors is quite satisfactory. Hard work is still in front of us in terms of getting the plant commissioned but this is a very important milestone in the Unibio go-to-market strategy.”

The licensee has already reserved land for future expansion. The land is situated in an industrial zone holding various international companies and where a lot of the necessary infrastructure is already present to support the project.  

“We see this not just as a perspective investment into cutting-edge technology but as part of a bigger picture: a highly profitable industry of the local agricultural sector built from the ground up," stated Mikhail Serdtsev, Protelux’ oversight board chairman. "The low cost of natural gas and electricity creates competitive advantages for Russia when it comes to the production of bio protein, we can expect this project’s EBITDA to be in the tens of percent. Our strategic goal is to secure its own source of locally sourced protein concentrate which is currently in very limited supply, for the Russian market.” 
 
The plant has a production capacity of approx 6,000 TPA It is the first out of many plants to be constructed in the near future as the parties expect a rapid capacity increase to 100,000+ TPA. The plant has four 30 meters high U-Loop bio-reactors.