When you press rapeseed to get cooking oil, you're left with a cake that mostly gets dumped into animal feed — cheap stuff. Turns out that cake is packed with high-quality protein that humans could eat, but nobody had a way to pull it out without destroying it. A Polish biotech company figured out how to do exactly that, and they've built a full-scale system to prove it works commercially. The kicker: the same ton of rapeseed that earned you EUR 450 could now be worth EUR 900.
Rapeseed processors extract oil and throw away most of the remaining value as cheap animal feed. The protein locked inside rapeseed cake is nutritious and valuable for human food, but until now there was no commercial technology to extract it without destroying its functionality. Processors need a way to capture this lost value to stay competitive.
A full-scale commercial demonstrator (TRL9) of rapeseed protein isolation technology, protected by three patent applications. The project also delivered showcase food examples proving the extracted protein works in real food products, plus a Basic Engineering Level design for a biorefinery.
If you are a rapeseed processor watching your margins shrink — this project developed a patented protein isolation technology that doubles the value you extract from every ton of rapeseed, from EUR 450 to EUR 900. The technology is available through licensing, with pricing based on your annual processing volume. A first license agreement was already signed in 2016.
If you are a food ingredients company searching for new plant-based protein sources beyond soy and pea — this project built a commercial-scale system to extract fully functional protein from rapeseed cake. The protein is ready for use in food products, and the technology creator has demo food examples to prove it. You could license the technology and integrate it into your existing supply chain.
If you are in the animal feed business sitting on mountains of rapeseed cake that sells at commodity prices — this technology lets you redirect that same raw material into the food protein market, which commands significantly higher prices. The project demonstrated full-scale protein recovery at TRL9, meaning this is not a lab concept but a production-ready process.
The licensing fee is calculated individually for each oilseed processor or integrated formulator, based on annual scale of processed rapeseed. The pricing strategy has been validated with rapeseed processors, and a first license agreement was signed in 2016.
Yes. The project's primary goal was delivering a full-scale demonstrator at TRL9 — commercial level, not lab scale. The project is now closed, meaning the demonstration phase has been completed.
The technology is protected with three patent applications. The business model is built around licensing these patents to rapeseed processors, which means buyers get legal certainty about the technology they're adopting.
Based on the project data, the value derived from the same amount of crop doubles — from EUR 450 to EUR 900 per ton. The project describes this margin improvement as potentially essential for rapeseed processors to stay competitive.
The project produced showcase food examples as a deliverable, demonstrating that the extracted rapeseed protein is fully functional for the food industry. Based on available project data, specific product categories are not detailed beyond general food applications.
The project ran from October 2019 to April 2022, covering full-scale demonstration and basic engineering design of a biorefinery. Based on available project data, implementation timeline for licensees would depend on integration with existing processing infrastructure.
This is a single-company project — NapiFeryn BioTech, a Polish SME that is both the developer and future licensor of the technology. The 100% industry composition with zero universities or research institutes signals this is a commercialization play, not a research exercise. The SME Instrument Phase 2 funding confirms the EU evaluated this as a high-growth innovation ready for market. For a potential licensee, dealing with one company that owns the patents and controls the technology simplifies negotiations considerably.
NapiFeryn BioTech is a Polish SME — contact through their project website or SciTransfer can facilitate an introduction.
Want to explore licensing this rapeseed protein technology for your processing facility? SciTransfer can arrange a direct introduction to the technology holder and help evaluate the business case for your operation.
