The core of AgriFoodTure revolves around projects that contribute to the achievement of the partnership’s overall mission goals by generating new knowledge, data, and products. One of these projects is GrassProtein which project manager Søren Krogh Jensen answers 3 questions about here:
What is your goal with the project?
Our goal is to enhance the production of local sustainable protein by improving perennial forage crop production. Additionally, we aim to enhance biorefining techniques to increase protein extraction efficiency, protein yield, and the nutritional quality of the biorefined fractions.
What is the current status of the project?
In the previous year, we harvested experimental plots of three different grass species and measured their total dry matter production and protein yield. In spring 2023, we established five varieties and applied four replicates with three levels of nitrogen fertilization. These plots will be harvested throughout 2023-2024, and samples will be fractionated into pulp and protein concentrate.
Regarding biorefining, our focus has been on increasing processing capacity, improving protein yield from the screw press by adjusting pressing conditions, and exploring the feasibility of incorporating a second pressing.
What are your preliminary findings?
Data analysis is currently underway, but our initial results suggest that Festulolium varieties, in particular, have a high capacity for protein yield. However, we are still awaiting the results from the fertilization experiment.
Furthermore, we have discovered that double pressing significantly increases protein yield, although the feasibility of investing in an additional screw press needs to be calculated. We expect that protein yield will continue to rise while production costs decrease throughout the project.
