MetGen is more than an enzyme company: We are a comprehensive biotechnology solution provider.
We combine synthetic biology with chemistry and process engineering to create full industrial solutions to enable better utilization of raw materials and a new wave of bio-based materials.
MetGen brings the full power of biotech to you
MetGen has a cross-disciplinary highly educated and experienced team. Combining with our expertise, we have created a technology platform – ENZINE® – for the creation and industrialization of new-to-the-world enzymes. Being able to bring a novel enzyme from idea to industrial production with low cost and under 1 year allows us to design new processes and combinations of biology and chemistry that have not been available before. For example, METNIN™ lignin refining is based on a unique enzyme with pH optimum at 11 and elevated temperatures. However, the enzymatic part is just one part of the full solution that involves a full engineering package, new analytics, chemical processes, connections to market, and an innovative business model to complete the innovation.
We build bridges
MetGen’s team is compiled to work for full solutions with a market-oriented approach and open innovation spirit. We are laser-focused on industrially meaningful applications and acknowledge that in this context MetGen is a small part of the value chain. Therefore, MetGen’s team is integrated with a very large global network of competences to always access the best available technologies and resources. Additionally, the active collaboration with other companies, RTOs, and universities have provided MetGen with a high-resolution understanding of the overall needs of the industry. Building on this knowledge, MetGen has brought together many consortia of organizations to make full new value-chains from forest or field to consumer goods and created numerous bio-based products along the way.
MetGen has 30 people working on two sites: Kaarina, Finland, and Geleen, Netherlands. Over these two sites, we have two microbiology and genetics laboratories focused on the creation and development of our enzymes and production strains – bacterial and fungal. In Kaarina, we have also the application team with a full laboratory for analyzing the impact of our solutions on actual industrial substrates and processes. MetGen enzymatic solutions are always developed with industrial applications in mind and the application testing provides a crucial feedback loop to genetics greatly improving the speed-to-market.
Kaarina facility is also home to our 750m2 pilot facility, Sampo, where we have the capacity to:
- scale-up fermentation processes, pilot the METNIN, SUNO, and PURECO processes in a 400L scale reactors
- run and optimize the related downstream operations, including a full membrane cascade and ready product formulations,
- continue the application testing in a fully equipped P&P wet-lab,
- Conduct scale-up of various new technologies from continuous hydrolysis to exotic bio-conversions and plastic degradation.
- Also, precommercial batches of new products and solutions up to 5 000 kg are formulated and packaged here.
MetGen brings you the solutions in industrial scale
MetGen has created very powerful production systems that enable swift industrialization and the affordable production of new enzymes. The processes have been designed to be robust and transferrable to contract manufacturing locations to allow us optimal capacity anywhere on the planet. Additionally, this approach has enabled a new business model for licensing the production systems to the end-user either for on-site co-manufacturing of the enzymes at a biorefinery, or production by the local contract manufacturer.
Currently, MetGen operates with a handful of carefully selected European contract manufacturers providing the company with much larger access to production capacity that could be achieved with centralized production in a dedicated facility.
MetGen is ready and capable to expand production operations outside Europe at any time.
Call to action:
We have the expertise to bring biotechnology to your business. Whether it’s about integrating co-productization of lignin to your biorefinery, or creation and supply of a new enzymatic solution, we got you!