The University of Maine Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI) and Aquaculture Research Institute (ARI) have been awarded $10 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to turn waste wood into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and fish feed.
Though those end products seem to have little in common, both can benefit from a surplus of waste wood in states like Maine, where decades of fire suppression, drought and reduced demand for pulp and paper production have left millions of tons of low-grade woody biomass (LWB)–such as small-diameter trees and branches–without a market.
Low-quality wood contains organic compounds that can be converted into fuel and sugars that can be fermented into proteins for fish feed. Fish feed is one of the highest expenses for aquaculture production. The program aims to make single-source proteins from the sugar in woody biomass to add to fish feed.
“The cost-effective co-production of fish feed from wood not only increases the profitability of aquaculture farmers but also minimizes the ecological impact of aquaculture by reducing reliance on wild-caught fish as feed,” the USDA announcement said.
The program, called Strengthening the U.S. Bioeconomy project, includes collaborators from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, USDA Agricultural Research Service and Arbiom, a North Carolina and France-based manufacturer of protein ingredients for human and animal food.
