White Dog Labs (WDL) acquired the Central Minnesota Renewables (CMR) plant in Little Falls, Minnesota, USA. The plant, originally a 20mgy ethanol plant, was upgraded in 2016 to produce butanol and has several unique production capabilities required to produce ProTyton, an alternative protein to fishmeal.

Cargill and WDL have recently announced an off-take agreement for ProTyton. ProTyton, made up of 80% protein, is sustainable and scalable as it is made from corn, but is also affordable as it shares production costs with its co-product, MiruTyton, a butyrate-rich fermentation-soluble that has been shown to substantially reduce the prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter in challenged broilers, in addition to improving feed conversion ratios and weight gain.

While WDL has developed and scaled up the anaerobic fermentation process for these products, its plant operation will be supported by the management of Midwest Renewable Energy (MRE). “We have been collaborating with WDL for the past two years and are excited to support the conversion and ramp-up of their first plant,” said Jim Jandrain, MRE’s chairman of the board. “We are impressed with the simple ProTyton process and are looking forward for MRE to become the second ProTyton plant.”