Alfa Laval announced that it has recently signed a partnership agreement with Bühler Insect Technology Solutions (BITS), a pioneering provider of integrated solutions for insect rearing and processing.

Rising costs of proteins, the potential health and growth benefits of insect-based ingredients for animals and an increased focus on sustainability are strong drivers for the emerging insect industry, according to an announcement from the Bühler Group. As a result, the sector has reported more than $300 million of investments in 2018 alone.

To leverage this booming sector, BITS and Alfa Laval have been cooperating since early 2018 with the objective of combining their strengths to provide efficient, integrated production plants.

"We are looking forward to bringing our expertise from other applications to this dynamic new market. The collaboration with Bühler allows us to combine our proven technology with a complete, integrated solution — and serve the customers better than either of us could do on our own," said Nish Patel, president of Alfa Laval's Food & Water Division.

Through the newly signed exclusive partner agreement, Alfa Laval and BITS will provide solutions to enable small facilities to scale up to efficient, integrated protein production plants for insect proteins for further use as animal feed.

The two companies will also cooperate on further research and development, marketing and after-sales services.

BITS and Alfa Laval said they aim to leverage each company’s technology capabilities, engineering know-how and market access. They have jointly developed tailored solutions for heat transfer, solid and lipid separation and fluid transfer that they said can be integrated seamlessly into modular insect plant solutions.

Thanks to the joint expertise, these highly flexible solutions allow insect producers to easily ramp up production as demand increases, the announcement said, noting that the products will be offered exclusively through BITS.

BITS chief executive officer Andreas Aepli said, "In Alfa Laval, we are proud to have found a partner who shares our approach and vision in this exciting new industry. We are convinced that insects will play an important role in making our food system more sustainable."

Dieter Voegtli, president of the global sales and service organization at Bühler Group, added, “With installation works for the first industrial-scale insect plant in Europe nearing completion, we will soon have an operating proof point of the viability of our insect process technology in an industrial setting.”

BITS provides modular solutions for the industrial-scale transformation of organic residues into quality ingredients using the power of insects. It covers the entire supply chain from feedstock handling to rearing, separation and extraction. BITS is part of the Bühler Group, which operates in 140 countries.

Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. Its equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol.