research overview – clemson university animal …...research overview – clemson university...

Research Overview – Clemson University Animal Co-Products Research and Education Center (ACREC)Annel K. Greene, ACREC Center Director

Early steps toward development of ACREC

• The concept initiated in Fall 2002

• Joint venture between the Fats and Proteins Research Foundation and Clemson University

• February 23, 2003 – Discussion forum


• Research needs at the time were related to non-nutritional applications for rendered products

• Concern on future related to the feed rule


• Developed structure, procedures, formats, timelines, by-laws, legal

• Officially named: Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center (ACREC)

• Built a coalition of researchers that continues to grow


• Research areas chosen by the renderers were:• Feed safety - thermal processing, chemical, etc.• Environmental – protection and remediation• New product development – materials, polymers,

textiles

Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center (ACREC)

Dedication Conference – March 27-29, 2006

ACREC today

• A total of 136 research projects have been conducted or are in progress

• At least 91 graduate students have been directly involved in research projects related to rendering challenges since inception

• At least 19 post-doctoral scholars have conducted research on rendering challenges

ACREC today

• More than 2500 undergraduate students have been introduced to the rendering industry through classroom instruction

• More than 350 undergraduate students have conducted research related to the rendering industry

ACREC today

• Many of our graduates are now employed in the rendering industry or related industries such as pet food, animal feed, wastewater, etc.

• The rendering industry through the Fats and Proteins Research Foundation has funded nearly $5 million in research at ACREC.

ACREC today

• 49 faculty directly involved conducting studies• From 4 different colleges• From 16 different departments

• 18 of the ACREC faculty sought tenure during this timeframe

• 6 out of 9 currently funded projects are by faculty who have been at Clemson less than 10 years

Dr. Srikanth Pilla

• Associate Professor of Automotive Engineering at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR)

Dr. Srikanth Pilla

• Making biodegradable plastic laminates for automobiles using rendered animal proteins

• Has made a major breakthrough in advancing “self-healing” technologies

Dr. Srikanth Pilla

• Advantages for rendering – potential to create new high value outlets for animal proteins

• Could result in high value “disappearance” of a large volume of animal proteins

Dr. Andrew Hurley

• Associate Professor of Packaging Science

• Renderable gloves and bags• polyethylene can be a

problem in rendered fat • derived from plastic bags in

the raw stream

Dr. Andrew Hurley

• Identified a commercially available biodegradable plastic to make renderable gloves and bags

• Material degrades during rendering cooking processes

Dr. Andrew Hurley

• Advantages for rendering –will prevent downgrading of value of animal fats due to “poly” and will prevent glove and other particles contaminating animal feed and pet food ingredients

Dr. Mark Blenner

• Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

• Working to engineer yeast to produce omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids

Dr. Mark Blenner

• The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils command a premium price in the market

• Supplies are limited

• Used in aquaculture feeds

Dr. Mark Blenner

• The rendering industry produces millions of pounds of fats but these are a different fatty acid composition than fish oils.

• Working to convert tallow and other rendered fats to omega-3 fatty acids.

Dr. Mark Blenner

• Advantages for the rendering industry –conversion of lower value fatty acids to higher value ones will increase profitability and open new markets.

Fish Oil Market:

0.9 MM tons 2016

$3.06 billion in 2016

Anticipated to be $4.9 billion by 2025

Yarrowia lipolytica – a lipolytic yeastFDA GRAS approved

The genome is fully sequenced

Dr. Xiuping Jiang

• Professor of Food Science & Professor of Microbiology

• Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic compound formed by bacterial degradation of sulfur containing proteins such as in feathers.

Dr. Xiuping Jiang

• With then graduate student Chao James Gong, isolated bacteriophages capable of inhibiting the growth of hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria.

Bacteriophages

Bacteriophages

Are GRAS approved

Prior to discovery of antibiotics, bacteriophages wereused as antimicrobials

Used in many cold cuts and other foods today

Dr. Xiuping Jiang

• Also isolated bacteriophages capable of inhibiting growth of Salmonella and conducted extensive studies on boot bath sanitation in rendering processing plants.

Dr. Xiuping Jiang

• Advantages for the rendering industry – reduced production of toxic hydrogen sulfide, reduced degradation of incoming raw materials and reduced incidence of Salmonella.

Dr. Charlie Gooding

• Professor of Chemical Engineering

• Conducted the life cycle analysis for rendering operations and products

• Created the carbon footprint calculator that is available on the FPRF website.

Dr. Charlie Gooding

• Engaged hundreds of sophomore and senior chemical engineering students in projects related to rendering.

• Directed a student study on development of high value products from rendered fats.

Dr. David Bruce

• Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

• Conducted the life cycle analysis for using rendered animal fats to produce biodiesel

Dr. David Bruce

• Accounting for all energy inputs and outputs, demonstrated that use of animal fats to make biodiesel has a very favorable final energy balance for the product.

Dr. Alexey Vertegel and Dr. Vladimir Reukov

• Department of Bioengineering

• Created a potent antioxidant from blood

• Have started their own company – VRM – to move their product into the market

• Working on obtaining FDA approvals


• Have further created a flocculant product from their waste that is proving beneficial for wastewater treatment

• Their solution – VRM Floc-X

• Natural biodegradable, renderable flocculant

• Produced from by-product of antioxidant production

• USDA Collaboration

• Dr. Rafael Garcia

Flocculant sample prepared from chicken blood.


• Benefit for the rendering industry – offers non-polyacrylamide flocculant for wastewater treatment.

Dr. Scott Husson

• Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

• Worked on a project to clean wastewater without the need for chemicals

• Utilized advanced membrane technology

Dr. David Ladner and Dr. Yi Zheng

• Department of Environmental Engineering

• Built on the work of Dr. Husson on membrane wastewater cleaning systems


• Constructed a field-deployable membrane bioreactor/separator for rendering facility wastewater treatment

Dr. David LadnerAssociate Professor Department of Environmental

Engineering and Earth Sciences

Dr. Yi ZhengHas since moved to Kansas State

Biotransformation of Meat and Bone Meal (MBM) into High-Value Astaxanthin for Animal Feed


Why Astaxanthin?

• Bioactive carotenoid

Benefits and applications• Health benefits: anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, enhancement of

immune system, etc.• Increase health and fertility and decrease mortality of chicken• Pigmentation of fishes• Food, cosmetic, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, feed, and aquaculture

industries

Dr. Yi Zheng and Dr. David Ladner

Astaxanthin is currently priced at $2500 to $7500 per kg

Produced by microalgae and a yeast – is important pigment for aquaculture and poultry feed

Currently, soybean meal is used for natural astaxanthin production

Biological transformation of meat and bone meal into the high value natural antioxidant astaxanthin

U.S. Astaxanthin Market by Product, 2014 - 2025 (Million dollar)

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-astaxanthin-marketAstaxanthin Market Size & Share, Industry Research Report, 2018-2025

Compound annual growth rate (CAGR: ~13%)

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-astaxanthin-market

Production of Astaxanthin

• Chemical synthesis (~$2,500)

• Feed and aquaculture

• Cheap, but less benefits

• Biosynthesis for natural astaxanthin (~$12,000)

• Microalga, Haematococcus pluvialis for human consumption with emerging market for feed and aquaculture

• Yeast, Phaffia rhodozyma for animal feed and aquaculture

Comparison between MBM and defatted soybean meal (DSM)

Dr. Joseph Thrasher

• Professor of Chemistry

• An article was published by another university stating that feather meal was contaminated with a wide variety of pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Dr. Joseph Thrasher

• Dr. Thrasher and his team of chemistry graduate students conducted an extensive analysis of feed-grade feather meal and challenged that paper’s findings.

Dr. Christopher Kitchens

• Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

• Investigated the use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a green solvent for extraction of rendered fat


• Project goal is to allow renderers greater options such as increasing fat extraction when fat prices are at a premium and producing low fat meals which may be of interest to pet food manufacturers


• In another project, is extracting valuable fat from DAF sludge

• Investigating conversion of these extracted lipids to fatty acid methyl esters

DAF Solids Extract via Supercritical Methanol

Cake as Supplied

Clean OilDirty Sludge/Oil

Extracted Powder

Potential Impact

• Effective means of dealing with DAF Solids with a proven, scalable method of solvent extraction

• Sustainable method of converting low grade oils to FAMEs using supercritical methanol.

• Insensitive to excess water, FFA, impurities etc.

• Scaleable, continuous, catalyst free.

DAF Extract After Reaction


• Is working with an extraction equipment company on pilot scale tests and design of extraction units

• Advantage to rendering industry – increased profitability


• Has also worked on improving soil fertility using rendered products as fertilizing ingredients

• Project funded by USDA and VFRC - $700K

Dr. Sudeep Popat

• Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences

• Exploratory project to use microbial fuel cells to further clean wastewater while generating electricity

Dr. Sudeep Popat

• Will also generate value-added chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide which could be used in processing plant sanitation

Dr. Kevin Finneran

• Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences

• Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Kevin Finneran

• Working on an extremely high value application of rendered products in an environmental remediation system. Could command as much as $1.35 to $3.00 per pound in a market that is anticipated to be $24.8 billion annually by 2022.

Dr. Andrew G. TennysonAssociate Professor

Dr. Rhett C. SmithAssistant Professor

Department of Chemistry

Free Fatty Acid Based Composites for (Bio)Material Applications

Reaction Process:•Assess the elemental composition of the materials•Monitor for possible hydrogen sulfide generation•Evidence for formation of C-S bonds and consumption of C=C bonds

Macroscopic Structure-Property Relationships:•Oleic Acid : Sulfur Ratio•Development of tars versus solids•Need product to be re-meltable•Want to be able to use existing asphalt-casting equipment

Renewable Source of Asphalt Materials

Dr. Dan Whitehead & Dr. Frank Alexis

• Associate Professors of Chemistry and Bioengineering, respectively.

• Dr. Alexis recently moved to a university in South America

• Developing biodegradable materials that selectively capture and destroy malodorous compounds associated with rendering operations

ACREC: The Future?

Innovation to solve rendering challenges

New approaches

Bringing expertise from non-traditional agricultural fields

Clemson University ACREC

Thank you!

research overview – clemson university animal …...research overview – clemson university...

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