This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Chris Landowski, co-founder and chief technology officer of Onego Bio.
The company earlier this year purchased a 26-acre lot in Jefferson County for a planned manufacturing facility. Onego Bio produces a fermentation-based egg protein powder product called Bioalbumen, and plans to reach the equivalent output of millions of chickens once the facility comes online in the coming years.
“It’s a little bit like the brewing process, so in a way we’re brewing egg protein,” he said. “And egg protein is kind of a product that you would use for all kinds of applications like baking, confectionaries, omelettes … we’re making that in a large-scale way.”
He notes the “massive” market for egg products the company aims to reach. While the business is still in the startup phase, having been launched about three years ago, he said the team is building on advanced technology and industry expertise.
Landowski explains that egg whites include dozens of different proteins, including a major component called ovalbumin, which makes up about 50% of that part of the egg. The protein gives eggs their foaming and finding properties needed for certain food products, such as a meringue.
“We are producing the 100% pure one protein, ovalbumin, in a recombinant microbe,” he said. “That’s something that’s a little bit different, but it is actually better in some ways … you can make a little bit different kinds of recipes, if you’re making a cake when you use our product you can form different, stronger, harder structures if you want.”
The podcast explores the company’s choice to set up shop in Wisconsin, and Landowski shares some details about the path ahead for developing the fermentation facility.
“So maybe it’s sort of ready towards the end of 2028, but I think maybe it opens in the beginning of 2029, then we’ll start manufacturing over there,” he said, adding “it would be like a massive egg farm, if you were to compare it.”
Once up and running, the facility will have capacity to produce about 5,000 metric tons of product per year, he said. If things go well, he said Onego Bio has capacity to add two more fermentation units on that nearly 30-acre parcel, eventually tripling that production ability.
Listen to the podcast below, sponsored by UW-Madison:
