From Lab to Industry: Nuutro Supports Grassa in Scaling Revolutionary Grass Juice Processing
At Nuutro, we are proud to announce our collaboration with Grassa for the conceptual engineering of their grass juice processing technology. With their pilot factory operational, Grassa faces the crucial next step: translating from laboratory to industrial scale for their innovative process that unlocks the full nutritional value of grass.
The Company: Circular Economy in Practice
Grassa has developed an innovative process for unlocking nutritional value from ordinary grass. Through a natural process of pressing, heating and filtering, proteins and other nutrients are extracted that are not fully utilized by cattle. The result is high-quality proteins and nutrients for human and animal consumption, while the remaining product becomes sustainable roughage for dairy cattle.
The Challenge
The main technical challenges lie in processing large volumes with relatively low protein concentrations, combined with the complex requirements for deodorizing and decolorizing the end product for the food industry. This requires a thorough engineering approach to scale from laboratory to industrial production.
Our Approach
Nuutro supports Grassa with complete engineering phasing that lays the foundation for industrial production. Our team initially develops process flow diagrams (PFDs), batch-time diagrams and conceptual layouts that accommodate the unique requirements of grass juice processing.
Additionally, we design and build prototype systems for critical process steps and coordinate test programs to further define and optimize the process. This practical approach, where engineering and fabrication go hand in hand, ensures realistic and implementable solutions.
Why Nuutro
Grassa chose Nuutro because of our proven expertise with comparable scale-up projects for innovative food producers such as Ynsect, Duynie and PeelPioneers. The key reasons for this collaboration are:
- Technology independent. We ensure the best match between process and technology. Unlike large multinationals that work with their own competencies.
- Tailored to the project and client. We are not an engineering party that burns hours writing engineering deliverables of questionable value. We do exactly what is needed. This accelerates our engineering process and reduces costs.
- Able to take responsibility. With engineering and execution under one roof, we can take on more responsibilities than usual. Comfortable for start-ups living in a world full of uncertainty and risks.
Results & Future
This project marks the beginning of what can become a long-term collaboration that guides Grassa from concept to full-scale production. After the conceptual phase, follow-up phases of basic engineering and potential realization can follow, with Nuutro supporting Grassa in their mission to fully utilize the nutritional value of grass and other leaf material.
The project fits perfectly within our focus on circular economy and alternative protein sources, and positions Nuutro as a specialist in scale-up engineering for innovative food producers.
Check out our way of working at Archief Systemen – Nuutro Process Technology (nuutro.nl)