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Which
development phases
do you have?

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Development of a new production processes for alternative protein ingredient from first idea to full-scale production and commercialization consists of several different phases. All these phases need to be executed and evaluated with the purpose to reduce risk in every step towards full scale commercialization. Once the decision to invest in a full scale plant is on the table all essential aspects  regarding product, technology, market, finance, registration and patents should have been accessed and sufficiently de-risked to do the investment. The phases  during the development process are:

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Idea generation

The first phase starts with the generation of an idea to introduce a new product, process or application. Once the first idea is defined a brief evaluation will be made of the rewards, risks, potential showstoppers, etc. from the various disciplines. Also a first estimate of the financials is made.

 

Feasibility phase

In this phase, the basic concept behind the original idea will be assessed and proven at laboratory level (proof-of-concept). Initial evaluation of market opportunities and potential market demand will also be done.

Development work in this phase starts in the laboratory. During this phase the method to extract or produce the protein is developed on a small scale and a first end-product is formulated. Once this is successfully achieved Proof of Concept is realized.

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Development phase

In the development phase, the laboratory-assessed idea will be proven to be viable on bench scale and/or pilot plant scale. The main focus is to develop a few options how the product can be produced. In most cases there are several different unit operations available for separation of biomass, purification of the protein and concentrating an drying of the protein at the end. Depending on the desired functionality and requirements of the products different processes will be developed. At the end of this phase the product and the process to produce the product is defined. 

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Scale-up phase

In this phase the process technology is scaled up, from bench scale or pilot plant to a process that can run in unit operations equivalent to the future production installation.

Where activities in the development phase are mostly focused on selecting and testing the right unit operations, this phases is about testing durability and determining essential scale-up parameters towards the full scale plant. Also market testing is part of this phase to confirm there is a need and consumers are willing to buy the product.

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Demo phase

Once the process is scaled up and the unit operations are known product needs to be produced for customers to start their market introduction and evaluation. For this reason the process needs to run for longer time to produce sufficient product and during this phase the yield and capacity of the process is further optimized.

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Plant Startup

Once the commercial plant is complete and tested the startup of the process is done which can take in general 6 to more than 12 months. It is the first time a process runs on full scale and often new issues appear that need to be solved.

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