Israeli startup Brevel has created a 50:50 joint venture with Indian conglomerate The Wave Group to build a large scale illuminated fermentation facility in Uttar Pradesh, India. The 300,000-liter facility—which will be funded by The Wave Group—will produce Brevel’s ‘Purallis’ chlorella microalgae but will also be available to startups in the plant cell culture space looking to turbocharge production, cofounder and CEO Yonatan Golan told AgFunderNews. “Beyond Brevel’s microalgae-based products, the facility will enable commercial scale production for plant cell culture companies. In fact, some of the companies we are working with today are already interested in securing capacity in the Brevel-Wave JV. The idea is that our customers will scale up to 5,000-L in our current facility in Israel, which we plan to scale to 30,000-L soon, and then we will transfer production to the much larger capacity in India.” Construction will begin later this year with full-scale production to commence in 18 months at the greenfield site, which will use byproducts from The Wave Group’s adjacent sugar mill as feedstock, explained Golan. “We have been testing different sugarcane refinery by-products and process intermediates. These include molasses, raw sugar and sucrose rich intermediates. This is still work in progress, but current results demonstrate a meaningful cost reduction.” He added: “The infrastructure will be set up for 300,000-L, but the first $15 million phase will be at a capacity of 100,000-L. This is still relatively a lot for $15 million compared to what other companies have invested in similar capacities. The key difference is that Brevel fully designs and builds the illuminated fermenters, which significantly reduces their cost compared to purchasing them from dedicated equipment or engineering companies.” The cost of constructing the building and basic utilities is excluded from the investment in the JV, and will be covered by The Wave Group, he said. Sugar + light = turbocharged fermentation Founded by in 2016, Brevel has developed an “illuminated fermentation” process combining light (from LEDs) and dark fermentation (where microbes are fed on sugars), the combination of which it claims changes the economics of producing protein-rich microalgae. While several startups use LED-lit photobioreactors to grow microalgae indoors, Brevel argues that the economics don’t stack up for protein production. Meanwhile, companies growing microalgae on sugar without light via dark fermentation have typically focused on higher-value products such as omega-3 DHA. Brevel, claimed Golan, “is the first and only company which has been able to combine fermentation and light in a single process. This means that Brevel can produce biomass with fermentation at yields 100 times higher than light-based cultivation, indoor or outdoor, and also produce all of the commercial value and quality that comes from having light in the process.” Sugar provides energy and nutrients for efficient fermentation, while light enables photosynthetic microorganisms such as chlorella to produce functional proteins and valuable compounds such as lipids and carotenoids, he said. Commercial traction Brevel’s tech can produce three ingredients: Purallis, a whole-cell Chlorella vulgaris biomass rich in protein and micronutrients; protein concentrates and isolates; and functional lipids and other high-value ingredients. The initial focus is on the whole cell product, said Golan: “Purallis is more than a simple protein source; it is a delivery system for anti-oxidants such as lutein and zeaxanthin, vitamin B12, protein, fiber, and fatty acids. The market is there and is big, no further regulation is required and we have a high quality product. This product alone can easily fill the capacity of the first and second stages of the JV.” Customers include Israel’s largest beverage company CBC Group—a national franchiser of global brands including Coca-Cola and Carlsberg—which plans to launch a product line featuring Brevel’s ingredients in mid-2027, he said. “Production will begin at our 5,000-L facility in Israel and will ramp-up in India once the JV begins operations during 2028.” However, the “biggest market pull we see is for our illuminated fermentation technology platform,” which can accelerate growth and increase yields of high-value compounds in plant cell culture, he added. “Our work with partners such as Ayana Bio, a US leader in plant cell technology, already demonstrates the broad potential of our platform. Together with The Wave Group, we can turn that potential into commercial-scale manufacturing. “We are doing both process improvement and scale-up projects, as well as actual manufacturing for companies who are transferring their production to our systems. We are about to land first long-term offtake agreements for future capacity and have good reason to believe that a major part of the JV will be concentrated on fulfilling these orders.” Further reading: Ayana Bio and Brevel net $1.25m grant to see if ‘illuminated fermentation’ can turbocharge plant cell culture Exclusive: Ayana Bio acquires Meati Foods assets for a steal to scale plant cell culture tech with Zenfold in India PhytoFoundry emerges from stealth with plant cell culture platform targeting high value bioactives From Taxol to cocoa: Can plant cell culture make the leap from drugs to food? The post Brevel teams up with The Wave Group to scale ‘illuminated fermentation’ in India appeared first on AgFunderNews.
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