BioMADE still on hunt for $200M biomanufacturing campus in Minnesota

A bioindustrial nonprofit that Cargill and the Department of Defense support is still searching for a site to build its $200 million manufacturing campus in Minnesota but plans to start construction within the next year.

Since the state Legislature awarded up to $100 million to BioMADE for its home base last year, the institute has added dozens of staffers and awarded millions to research projects to help replace petroleum with plants in everyday products as well as start a biomanufacturing industry in the U.S.

“We’re building an end-to-end ecosystem for the bio-economy,” said Jill Zullo, BioMADE’s new chief operating officer. “In five years, there will be new technologies ready to produce products from renewable resources.”

Since its founding in 2021, BioMADE has awarded $166 million to 75 projects, Zullo said. The Twin Cities-based biomanufacturing institute saw its federal funding grow from $87 million to more than $500 million last year and has about 300 member companies, though it lost 3M as a backer.

“The bioeconomy plays a critical role in many solutions that are better for people and the planet,” said Florian Schattenmann, chief technology officer and vice president of innovation and R&D at Cargill. “Investments in innovation, talent and opportunities to scale the bio-economy are exactly what we need to accelerate the future of food, agriculture and several other interconnected industries.”

Zullo joined BioMADE after a long career at Cargill, where she helped lead the development of a bio-based plastic, among numerous other innovations. With fossil fuels so ingrained in the economy, Zullo said “there’s a lot of pressure on price” when it comes to alternatives made from plants, fungi and bacteria.

One project BioMADE funded is looking closely at how to scale up fermentation to make products that can financially compete with petroleum-based counterparts. Another project is using an engineered strain of E. coli to build polymers from biomass at an ethanol research center.

Taking swings like that typically requires partnerships and outside funding, Zullo said, since the business of research and development is fraught with failure.

“When you do innovation, you find some things that work better than you thought, but often, they’re more challenging than you think,” she said. “It’s difficult anytime you want to try something new.”

BioMADE’s manufacturing campus will be somewhere in the Twin Cities metro area and will join sites in six other states to serve as a network for bioindustrial research and commercialization.

“The idea of this pilot plant allows companies to demonstrate their technology so they could go to a contract manufacturer or put steel in the ground themselves,” Zullo said. “This can be used by a startup or a Cargill.”

The nonprofit is also investing in education and workforce training as well as the infrastructure needed to bring innovations to market in an industry heavily dominated by overseas players.

“At BioMADE, we’re striving to build a bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem so that the U.S. can lead the global bio-economy of the 21st century and beyond,” said BioMADE CEO Doug Friedman. “With strategic investments today, we can reshore manufacturing jobs and create products that Americans use every day right here on U.S. soil.”

Minnesota — with its abundance of soy, corn and sugar beets often used in biomanufacturing — has attracted attention from others in the industry. Solugen is building a 500,000-square-foot facility in Marshall expected to open next year and begin turning corn sugar into plastics and other chemicals.