NEW TECH FOODS

New Wave Biotech has partnered with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to apply hybrid AI-powered simulations to one of industrial biotechnology’s most persistent challenges: lipid extraction.

The collaboration will also explore intracellular bioprocesses, aiming to improve scalability across a range of applications.

Lipids, key ingredients in products from food and feed to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, are seeing growing demand. In the UK, concerns over food security are rising, with the Office for National Statistics reporting a 5.1% increase in food prices over the past year.

More efficient lipid processing could help reduce costs, strengthen supply chains and improve sustainability for both industry and consumers.

Current extraction methods, however, have long presented challenges. Solvent-based techniques, while widely used, rely on large volumes of toxic and flammable chemicals and require energy-intensive recovery. Non-solvent approaches are safer but remain expensive and inconsistent, limiting the scale-up of sustainable alternatives to palm oil, cocoa butter and animal fat substitutes.

Through the partnership, New Wave Biotech will provide CPI with its hybrid AI platform to optimise both solvent and non-solvent lipid extraction. By running thousands of in-silico simulations, the platform can assess performance, cost and sustainability trade-offs before laboratory trials, helping companies scale more efficiently.

Nix Hall, CTO of New Wave Biotech, said:  “We’re excited to work with CPI to optimise lipid bioprocesses, which are essential for scaling many of the next generation of sustainable products. Lipid costs are visible in everything from food to cosmetics, and solving this challenge is key to making alternatives affordable and accessible".

"By combining predictive accuracy with techno-economic and sustainability insights, our platform helps innovators cut down on trial and error and move faster towards solutions that benefit both industry and consumers.”

Stephen Wright, manager of downstream processing at CPI, added: “Partnering with New Wave Biotech gives us powerful new tools to help clients scale sustainable products. Unlike many AI/ML tools that need huge datasets, this platform achieves high accuracy from minimal data, allowing us to identify the best downstream routes much earlier and with greater confidence.”