350PPM BIOTECH ACHIEVES BREAKTHROUGH FOR MARINE CONSERVATION WITH FIRST PRODUCT

350PPM Biotech achieves breakthrough for marine conservation with first product. Marinin® replaces controversial ingredients in aquaculture feeds.

Biotechnology company 350PPM Biotech GmbH announced yesterday (February 6), that its first product, Marinin®, can make an important contribution to marine conservation and the preservation of rainforest and ocean biodiversity.

Marinin® is produced by a marine bacterium that feeds exclusively on CO₂ and uses hydrogen as an energy source. It can almost completely replace the controversial ingredients fishmeal and soy in conventional aquaculture feed. This was the result of several weeks of feeding trials on salmon and shrimp conducted by Pontus Research, Ltd. (Aberdare, Wales, UK).

The company is currently planning to build a pilot plant in Sines, Portugal, which will use CO₂ from its partner Maiken Foods’ land-based fish farm to produce Marinin®. As a next step, 350 PPM will build an industrial plant in the Portuguese port city to help close the protein gap. This is because Europe is currently 70% dependent on imports of proteins from abroad.

The world’s oceans are in danger because more and more small fish and other animals (“bycatch”) are being caught to produce fish meal for feeding aquaculture fish. For example, entire schools of so-called “industrial fish” such as herring, anchovies, and sand eels are fished off. Mussels, squid and other fish species also end up in fish meal.

The increasing demand for fish meal and oil is threatening their stocks. To produce 1 kg of salmon in aquaculture, far more than 1 kg of wild fish is needed, despite all efforts to find substitutes. In addition, soy is mainly used as a substitute. The increasing global demand for soy is threatening the rainforests in South America and Asia.

“We believe we have a solution to this problem,” said Erwin Jurtschitsch, CEO and co-founder of 350PPM Biotech.”As a world first, we have shown that our product can almost completely replace fish meal and soy, the most ecologically questionable ingredients in fish feed. Instead of overfishing the oceans, fish and shrimp could be farmed on land without using the controversial bycatch.”

“Our approach is sustainable in many ways,” said Dr. Ludger Weß, CSO and co-founder of 350PPM Biotech. “We use CO2 from man-made sources and hydrogen generated with green electricity. Our process requires virtually no land, little water and can produce feed completely independent of season, weather and climate. In addition, we leave no harmful residues.”

About 350PPM Biotech

350PPM is a biotechnology company that uses precision fermentation to produce high-quality ingredients for feed and food. The company was founded in Hamburg (Germany) in 2020 and opened a subsidiary in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2023.