Biomass fermentation · Australian cane
A high-protein, high-lysine feed ingredient, made from Australian cane.
Lysine Australia has developed a single-cell protein that carries its own free lysine. One organism, grown on raw sugar-mill syrup, makes both the protein and the amino acid in a single ferment, and both leave the plant in one product.
The organism is classically derived and is not genetically modified. It has been bred in Australia, on one lineage, for four decades.
The problem
Two feed ingredients Australia does not make.
Feed mills typically buy protein ingredients, then buy amino acids separately to balance the diet. Two of the most important, lysine and fishmeal, are imported from supply chains Australia does not control.
Lysine
6,223 kg CO₂e
per tonne of effective lysine on the incumbent route, made from corn starch and shipped in.1 Australia has no lysine production of its own.
The organism
A strain bred the other way.
MB9AA2, our commercial strain, is a Corynebacterium glutamicum strain, classically derived by mutagenesis. For sixty years the amino acid industry bred for maximum titre, and paid for it in growth rate. MB9AA2 was selected for the opposite: growth, in very high concentrations of molasses.
It runs on the mill stream
MB9AA2 runs at 200 g/L of fermentable sugar on raw mill syrup, with no decolourisation, ion exchange or liming; 250 g/L has been tested. Published C. glutamicum molasses fermentations run at about 50 to 100 g/L.5
It is fast and robust
It holds its performance on a raw, unconditioned mill stream, and its carbon uptake is significantly higher than that of typical amino acid production strains, further enhanced by self-cycling fermentation. Cell protein is made by growth, so growth rate sets the productivity of the plant.
It is not a GMO
Being classically derived is what allows the cell mass to be sold as a feed protein, and it opens certified non-GMO feed markets. Mutagenesis with a long safety record is exempt from the EU GMO Directive.6
The lineage began with the original Lysine Australia four decades ago and has been developed and held continuously since.
The product
Protein and lysine in one ingredient.
The organism secretes lysine into the broth while it grows. The cell protein and the free lysine are recovered from the same ferment as one ingredient, designed so a formulator can source protein and lysine together, blended to their own diet.
High protein
(Up to 85% crude protein, design figure.) Composition is confirmed at pilot scale.
High free lysine
(Up to 30% free lysine, design figure.) Free amino acid, not a salt, and immediately available. It lifts the amino acid value of the whole ingredient above plain single-cell protein.
One intake
One supplier, one quality release and one storage position, in place of a protein and the amino acids bought to balance it.
Bacterial single-cell protein is already fed to salmon and trout in published trials.7
The process
From mill syrup to a finished ingredient.
The plant sits beside a sugar mill and takes part of its syrup. It runs year-round on stored syrup after the crush, and on power from the mill’s own bagasse.
- Syrup. Raw mill syrup is taken during the crush and stored to carry the plant through the off-season. It arrives already fermentable; corn starch must be wet-milled and hydrolysed first.
- Sterilisation. The medium is made up and sterilised continuously.
- Fermentation. MB9AA2 grows in self-cycling fermentation: part of the broth is harvested each cycle and replaced with fresh medium, so the fermenter stays in production instead of turning around between batches.8
- Recovery and finishing. The protein and lysine are recovered and dried together as one ingredient, then blended to each buyer’s diet, packed and released against a quality check.
The model
A plant beside a sugar mill, and it repeats.
Each plant sits beside a sugar mill and uses part of its syrup and bagasse energy; the mill keeps making sugar. The design repeats across the industry.
Beside the mill
The plant takes part of the mill’s syrup and runs on steam and power from the mill’s own bagasse. The mill keeps making sugar with the rest.
357
Days a year
The plant runs year-round against a 165-day crush, so the jobs it creates are year-round.
Evidence
What has been measured and built.
| Measured or built | Detail |
|---|---|
| Growth on raw mill syrup | 200 g/L fermentable sugar with no pre-conditioning; 250 g/L tested. Conversions and cycle length measured on syrup at bench scale. |
| Strain lineage | Four decades on one lineage, developed and held continuously. |
| Pilot plants | Two designed, built and run. A 3,000 L plant on molasses four decades ago. A 2,000 L pilot plant built in Thailand, shipped to Australia and commissioned in Queensland, run on hydrolysed sorghum from 2023 to 2025: grain hydrolysis, continuous UHT sterilisation, a 1,500 L working-volume fermenter with oxygen and ammonia sparging, and evaporation to 50% liquid lysine. |
| Plant design | Commercial plant designed and costed line by line. |
Contact
We are happy to talk.
Feed formulators, sugar millers and research partners.
info@lys-au.comSources
- Ding et al. 2026, life-cycle emissions of Chinese lysine production; functional unit effective lysine, 70% sulphate basis.
- World Bank WITS, Australian fishmeal imports, 2023; whole-fish equivalent at 22.5% yield, Tacon and Metian 2008.
- PRODUCE on IMARPE advice, Peru first north-central season 2026: 1,914,049 t against 3,000,000 t.
- FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026; IFFO.
- J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 2013: 49.6–95.8 g/L total sugar.
- Directive 2001/18/EC, Annex I B; Court of Justice of the EU, C-528/16, 25 July 2018.
- Aquaculture 2024–25; Animals 2020.
- Brown and Cooper 1991, Appl Environ Microbiol 57:2901; Tan, Stein and Sauvageau 2022, Sci Rep 12:13154.