Startup company Battlefield ęio invented the method of producing edible fat from agricultural waste such as sawdust

Ęio (pronounced eye-oh) is the Estonian god of dreams. It seems that this is quite a suitable name for the emerging startup called ęio, coming from this tiny Baltic country, which developed the process of transforming agricultural waste such as sawdust, in fats for the food and cosmetics industry.

This process will be a strategy to reduce the world’s addiction to palm oil, which has grow to be the basis of food and cosmetics as a consequence of its emulsifying and preservative properties. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the demand of this plant for a hot and moist atmosphere, this huge industry notoriously destroys rainforests and other sensitive ecosystems to make room for farms.

Co-founders of the ENA are biotechnologists Nemailla Bonturi and Petri-Jaan Lahtvee based on doctoral studies of Bonturi. During her studies, she invented a latest microbe – a yeast strain. Instead of consuming sugar and release carbon dioxide or alcohol, as in the case of bread and beer, yeast devour sugar and produce fat particles. The company will present its technology as part of Startup Battlefield during this yr’s TechCrunch Disrupt edition, which is able to happen at the end of this month in San Francisco.

Lahtvee was a professor of food and bioengineering technology at the Estonian University of Technology in Tallinn, and in 2016 he ran his own biotechnology laboratory there, and Bonturi became his first worker. She brought her microbe with her and worked on a molecule, changing it so that it was so durable that it may very well be produced.

Because Estonia has a large agricultural base consisting of corn and other food cereals, as well as sugar cane and sawn cane, the laboratory examined how sugars produced from agricultural waste streams will be food for this microbial. “We started working on it when developing metabolic engineering tools,” said Lahtvee Techcrunch. Answer: He could eat these sugars quite well.

“Fat profile of the molecule is very similar to existing fats,” says Lahtvee, and in its form of solid fat probably “most resembles chicken fat.” However, it is also possible to switch the fermentation process to provide liquid oil, which could make it a good alternative to produced oils, such as rapeseed/rapeseed oil.

In 2022, the founders knew that that they had a commercially profitable solution and launched ęio with the hope of collecting Venture Capital funds and establishing trade partnerships to introduce it to the market. Until now, they have collected about $ 7 million and from the moment they founded methods to develop precise fermentation products, have won the Baltic Sustainability Award 2024 award and obtained over 100 firms around the world interested in cooperation – says Startup.

“We conducted a very extensive analysis after creating our product and so far we have observed that our final product has the same level as plant oils, except for pesticides – it is even cleaner,” Bonturi said TechCrunch.

Then, the company plans to build a fatty plant in industrial quantities until 2027, as well as grant a license for this technology to other cosmetics and food manufacturers. He must also obtain permits for the sale of fats as food in individual countries, most definitely starting from Singapore, which in the past was more open to alternative food production products.

“Of course, this is an innovative way of food production and we must go through all permits and analysis,” said Bonturi.

As the plans were realized, Bonturi said that she hoped to point out how “two scientists in this small country could actually do something better for the world, but this is only my personal dream.”