A banana-based growth enhancer turbo-charges fermentation in food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical processes. By adding water to the bananas and then mixing, heating, and filtering the mash, LyteGro produces Baclyte, a microbial growth enhancer. Highly potent, the mixture enables rapid microbe growth for a huge range of industrial applications. With everything from biofuels, brewing, and distilling to dairy food and pharmaceutical production reliant on microbes, Baclyte has the potential to be a highly valuable addition to food and commercial manufacturing processes. By speeding up microbial growth, production of the final product occurs faster and yield is increased.

Bananas going to waste on the kitchen counter is an all-too-frequent occurrence. On an industrial scale, that waste is even greater, with up to 30 per cent of the annual banana crop deemed unsuitable for sale and therefore discarded. The UK’s Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) reported there are 1.4 million edible bananas thrown away daily in the UK and which accounts for 83,000 tons of avoidable waste.

LyteGro plans to expand its volume of production by working with local communities and governments to build and locate waste banana processing plants near growers. Cutting down on transportation costs reduces emissions, and as microbreweries and distilleries continue pushing the growth in circular economies, putting local waste products to use further can further bolster their green credentials.