The company is now looking to develop a second site, in Brazil © Enifer
The Finnish startup will be working with FS, one of Brazil’s leading producers of ethanol, which is currently working to construct a 500-tonne capacity pilot plant after validating their thin stillage as a feedstock for Pekilo Pet and Pekilo Aqua mycoprotein production.
As Enifer explains, these mycoproteins are produced through a biomass fermentation process that utilises a unique fungal strain, akin to the techniques employed in brewing or producing soy sauce. This process yields ingredients that are rich in protein (60 percent) and beta-glucan fibre, low in fat and carbohydrates, and highly palatable and digestible sources of complete protein.
“Transferring this process across the Atlantic to a new continent and using a new agricultural side stream is a significant validation of the flexibility and robustness of the Pekilo fermentation technology,” said Simo Ellilä, CEO and co-founder of Enifer. “It shows that Pekilo can deliver consistent performance from a wide variety of raw materials and in very different industrial settings,” he continues.
To enable the scale-up of the production, FS has approved the project under the Mais Inovação Brasil programme, which supports innovation through public funding and subsidies. The initiative will receive R$9.8 million in funding from FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), the Brazilian innovation agency. The product will be marketed to the animal nutrition industry in Brazil as well as other countries, such as Ecuador and Chile, who are major producers of shrimp and salmon, respectively.
“With this funding, we will advance key stages related to fungal fermentation, enabling us to move toward industrial production. We will now implement our pilot plant, learn how to scale its operation and test the market with high-performance functional solutions for animal nutrition,” said Daniel Lopes, VP of sustainability and business development at FS.
Once fully operational, the plant could reach a production capacity of 10,000 tonnes annually, making it a significant new source of sustainable protein in Latin America.
The Brazilian initiative is part of Enifer’s broader scale-up trajectory. In Finland, the company is finalising the construction of its first full-scale Pekilo production facility, backed by €33 million in funding and designed to produce up to 3,000 tonnes of high-quality mycoprotein ingredients annually.
