Norwegian Research Council - HAVBRUK 2

Project partners: 
NMBU: Faculty of Science and Technology (RealTek)
NMBU: Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science (KBM)
NMBU: Faculty of Biosciences (BIOVIT)
California Center for Algae Biotechnology (UCSD), USA
Norilia AS, Norway
Borregaard ASA, Norway

Due to a rising global production of farmed fish, there is increasing demand for high-quality protein and energy sources for use in fish feed. In particular fish oil in aquaculture has increased dramatically in the last two decades. In industrially formulated feeds, aquaculture is already consuming more than 70% of globally produced fish oil, creating environmentally unsustainable demand that cannot be met by the limited pelagic fish catch. Due to stagnant production of fish oil from marine resources, the future needs for fish oil in aquaculture industry are expected to outstrip the current supply within the next decade.

Mature Atlantic salmon (left) and young fertilized salmon eggs (right)

Photo

NMBU

Therefore, there is an urgent need for alternative and preferably land-based feed resourcess to replace the traditional fish oil sources. The OIL4FEED project aims at developing high-value oils for salmon feed from food by-products and lignocellulose biomass by use of oleaginous microorganisms. OIL4FEED will develop a process for producing microbial oils with a high level of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and ω-6 monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids by oleaginous microalgae and fungi from animal fat by-products and second generation sugars derived from Norwegian woody feedstock. This will allow, for the first time, to establish, a new value chain from "Norwegian by-products – to –Microbial Feed Oils" in Norway. This will increase financial and environmental sustainability of Norwegian aquaculture, agriculture, forest and food industry. OIL4FEED will deliver a complete set of new knowledge about the effect of algal/fungal oil on growth performance and health of fish.