Cirkulär awarded € 226 000 to upcycle forest-based industry waste streams into multiple high-value products

After launching its first product this autumn – a protein-based ingredient for fish feed produced from forest-based industry side streams and becoming the first in the world to commercialize mycoprotein for aquaculture – Cirkulär, together with the University of Borås and Kitcoat, has now been awarded € 226 000 from FORMAS to investigate how additional high-value substances can be obtained through the same process.

This project reinforces Cirkulär’s long-term vision: using a filamentous fungus and an industrial side stream to develop several sustainable product streams. It marks an important step toward establishing a full-scale integrated fungal biorefinery, where a single bioprocess supports multiple product lines.

“This project will demonstrate how much value can be unlocked simply by making better use of existing side streams. Until now, our focus has mainly been on the protein component for fish feed, but we will now evaluate other valuable compounds and identify where they offer the strongest impact. This is not just R&D, it’s a strategic move toward long-term growth and a more circular bioeconomy,” says Eric Öste, Founder and CEO of Cirkulär.

In addition to its main product Mycomeal, a whole-mycelium protein ingredient for aquafeed, Cirkulär will now develop new processes and assess the potential to develop the following product streams from the same fungal process: proteins (reduced reliance on imported soy and fishmeal), chitin-glucan complexes (natural dietary fibers), chitosan (water treatment), and beta-glucans (functional food ingredients).