Green manufacturing: Angel Yeast overcomes China's energy crisis and guarantees stable global supply

Angel Yeast produces yeast, yeast extract and yeast-derived products such as fertiliser, distilled spirits and biofuels, microbial nutrition, and enzymes.

At present, China is currently facing one of its worst energy crisis where high coal costs, restrictions on Australian coal import, the Chinese Government’s plans to reduce carbon emissions and a surge in exports have caused power shortages.

Companies operating in energy-intensive industries such as fertiliser production, steelmaking, aluminium smelting, cement manufacturing have been hit the hardest, having had to reduce energy usage during periods of peak demand or limit the number of days that they operate.

For Angel Yeast, the impact on its fertiliser business is not as harsh as those in the chemical fertiliser industry which uses coal and natural gas as its main raw material. Angel Yeast adopts a green manufacturing technology which means it utilises waste liquid from yeast production to make organic fertiliser, creating a circular economy.

However, the firm said food manufacturers associated with Angel Yeast such as biofermentation of molasses procurement and fuel ethanol may be affected by further resource constraints.

The firm has termed green manufacturing as its definition of implementing environmentally conscious practices throughout the product’s life cycle. This way, it hopes to minimise the negative impact on the environment and maximise the use of resources.

It has implemented water reuse technique, yeast fermentation waste resource utilization, yeast green packaging and others in an attempt to promote clean production through energy conservation and emission reduction.

According to Eric Ao, general manager of Angel Europe Division, the firm is also improving automation and intelligence to improve production efficiency, reduces carbon emission and water consumption across other sites.

Yeast protein​

The company recently introduced a yeast protein ingredient suitable for plant-based applications.

The ingredient, AngeoPro F80, is vegan-friendly, allergen-free, and of natural-origin yeast protein.

"As a unique microbial protein, yeast protein can not only provide similar nutritional value to animal protein, but also address the concerns involving plant-based protein such as genetic modification and shortage of land resources. We believe yeast protein is one of the best alternative protein sources in the market now​," said Ao.

Yeast protein is an ideal protein source for plant-based formulations due to its balanced amino acids composition and micronutrients as well as high digestibility.

Currently, the protein in most plant-based meat products have a low digestion rate.

Some of the essential amino acids in AngeoPro F80 is doubled the amount of WHO/FAC recommendations, including lysine (9.43g/100g), isoleucine (5.94g/100g) and leucine (9.78g/100g).

It can be used in protein bars, beverages, baked goods, and plant-based foods such as fish and chicken.