Page 24 - AWA Vol. 42-No.4 issue

UNIBIO GROUP

the Saudi industrial investment group and unibio to build the

world’s largest single-cell protein plant in Saudi arabia

largest single-cell protein facility ever
built in the world. A gas allocation for
the plant has been received from Saudi
Ministry of Energy, and a site has been
nominated by the Royal Commission for
Jubail and Yanbu. The project has also
received strong support from a number
of related Saudi Government entities.

The Joint Venture agreement follows
a US$ 70 million investment in Unibio
from SIIG in 2023. SIIG’s strategy to
grow and diversify its business – will be
accelerated by its investment in Unibio.

Commenting on the JV, David Hen-
strom, CEO of Unibio said:

“The world needs innovators who
The Saudi Industrial Investment Group The plant will be located in Al Jubail collectively want to find a solution to
(“SIIG”), a prominent investor/oper- and will produce an initial 50,000 providing food stability for future gen-
ator in the chemical industry in Saudi tonnes of Uniprotein® annually with erations. We believe that our fermenta-
Arabia, and Unibio International PLC plans to increase to over 300,000 tonnes tion technology, which incorporates the
(“Unibio”), a leading biofermentation in the coming years. The plant aims to most efficient reactor of its kind in gas
company, will build the world’s largest reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependency on fermentation, is ideal for Saudi Arabia.
single-cell protein plant in Saudi Arabia animal feed imports. The Uniprotein® We are delighted to join with SIIG as a
in an 80:20 (SIIG:Unibio) joint venture produced is expected to be sold both JV partner to bring industrial scale fer-
to feed the world's growing population domestically and internationally. mentation to the Kingdom and look for-
and improve food security. ward to working together to address an

Unibio welcomed SIIG as an investor Gas turned into feed authentic problem - how to feed a grow-
in 2023. Since then, the partners have ing population with minimal impact on
made significant progress preparing to The plant will use Unibio’s proprietary the planet”.
vertical loop bioreactor technology, a
build the world’s largest single-cell pro-
continuous-flow fermentation process
tein plant in Saudi Arabia based on Un-
that replicates nature in converting Mr. Abdulrahman Alismail of Saudi
ibio’s patented vertical loop bioreactor
methane into Uniprotein®, a high-qual- Industrial Investment Group, added:
technology. With its abundance of nat-
ity and sustainable single-cell protein
ural gas, Saudi Arabia is an ideal loca- “We are excited to work on developing
for animal feed.
tion to use Unibio’s unique fermentation this project alongside our partner Uni-
technology to produce single-cell pro- Uniprotein® has been tested success- bio, and look forward to bringing sus-
tein – Uniprotein® - with natural gas as fully in various animal species. Non tainable protein production to the King-
feedstock. As part of Saudi Arabia’s Vi- -GMO, free from pesticides, and fully dom of Saudi Arabia, our region, and the
sion 2030, Saudi Arabia is looking to di- traceable, it is approved for aquaculture rest of the world. We see this as a strate-
versify its economy and create dynamic in Saudi Arabia, for feed in the EU and gic investment for our company and the
opportunities for its citizens through has additional registrations globally. long-term growth in shareholder value.
Using Unibio’s technology, we aim to
education, entrepreneurship and inno- The front-end engineering design
vation. Unibio’s transformational tech- (FEED) was completed last year, and make Saudi Arabia the leader in single-
nology and SIIG’s strategic aspirations construction of the plant is anticipated cell protein production and improve
mark a significant milestone by bring- to commence in the second half of food security for both Saudi Arabia and
ing the most sophisticated industrial 2026, with commercialisation expected the world’s growing population”.
fermentation to the Kingdom. to start in 2028. This facility will be the Circle 28 on enquiry card
22 Vol. 42 No. 4