Fermentation Facility

Currently the largest publicly accessible fermentation pilot scale facility in New Zealand. The facility is based at Gracefield, Lower Hutt as part of the wider Biotechnologies Group and comprises ~ 5 laboratories including PC1 and PC2 labs and processing halls. The capabilities and equipment portfolio, supported by a team of ~ 10 experts, brings significant value to New Zealand, and occasionally global companies, operating in the fermentation space, through our ability to develop and scale up microbial processes from flasks to 1,000 L scale. The breadth of our fermentation expertise allows us to assist a wide range of companies, spanning the Food & Beverage, Health, and Agritech sectors, and has supported the launch of numerous successful products. We specialize in using microbial systems to produce nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, pharmaceuticals, agrichemicals, biocontrol agents or bio-stimulants, and food ingredients or products. Our expertise in micro through to pilot scale submerged liquid fermentation, including precision fermentation, offers scalable solutions to innovators wanting an R&D partner for their new product development. Housed within our PC1 and PC2 facility, we have bioreactors and associated downstream processing equipment for end-to-end product development from 1 L to 1,000 L scale. This capability derisks and validates product development processes at pilot-scale. We can operate with a wide range of microorganisms including bacteria, yeast, filamentous fungi, food, generally regarded as safe (GRAS), genetically modified organisms (GMO), pathogenic (risk group 2) microorganisms, and occassionally bacteriophage. We have expertise in a wide range of culturing processes including aerobic, anaerobic, batch, fed-batch, and on occasions, food grade. We are the only end-to-end facility in New Zealand with upstream development, pilot scale fermentation capability and downstream processing for accelerating new product development.