Dec. 2021: Current Initiatives

Owned and operated by Bubbly Dynamics LLC, The Plant is a research and production facility comprising a collaborative community of small food businesses. The following initiatives at The Plant include Bubbly Dynamics’ work as well as updates on the approx. 20 small food businesses located here.

Business News

  • Fat Ice: Bubbly Dynamics is preparing to build out a 3,400sf freezer for Fat Ice’s expansion. Fat Ice acquired Just Ice earlier in 2021; Just Ice has been at The Plant since 2015.

Building Updates

  • Bubbly Dynamics is coordinating design and engineering for a new 3,500sf greenhouse in the yard for Back of the Yards Algae Sciences' research, to house the pilot-scale digester and full-scale biofilm reactors.

  • We are working to secure financing for building improvements to be partially funded by the City of Chicago’s Neighborhood Opportunity Fund program. The future NOF grant of up to almost $1.7 million will support repairs and renovations with a total cost of approx. $2.8 million. The funding will allow us to construct seven commercial incubator kitchens to accommodate food start-ups in our community, modernize manual freight elevators, and construct a north entrance leading out to the yard and serving as a connection point for all floors.

  • Bubbly Dynamics is currently winterizing and tightening up the building envelope at The Plant, including adding insulation and sealing up holes. We are removing the last of the obsolete electrical systems from the building’s meatpacking days.

Development 

  • Build-out of Back of the Yards Algae Sciences’ Food Innovation Lab (Fi-Lab) is ongoing. The Fi-Lab is designed to facilitate the transition from innovation to plate, with scaled-up capacity for cellular agriculture and a restaurant-sized test kitchen. Lab-grade cabinetry, a Type 1 hood for hot-line, and a Type 2 hood for a spray dryer are currently being installed in the Fi-Lab, which BYAS will use for producing phycocyanin as well as mycelial and algal products. An all-glass clean room that will be installed in the lab for mycological research is in the process of being designed and engineered.

  • Bubbly Dynamics connected the South Side Hackerspace, a tenant at Bubbly, with BYAS for their technical expertise to work on BYAS’s cell culture robot and make it operational. The cell culture robot was acquired at little cost due to its condition, with the understanding that it might be impossible to bring back online. It is intended to be used for the development of lab-grown proteins.

Research

  • BYAS launched a new trial in its Circular Economy - Controlled Environment Agriculture (CE-CEA) grow room, which was developed in partnership with Bubbly Dynamics. Specialized hydroponic systems are being used to test biostimulant solutions developed onsite using digestate produced by the pilot-scale anaerobic digester and algal bioremediation. BYAS is currently running a comparative trial growing Carolina Reaper Peppers to test the value of microalgae biostimulants in increasing the vitality and growth of the plants. Testing will include an evaluation of the heat of the peppers for each trial, as well as standard growth metrics.

For additional information on research on anaerobic digestion and our findings to date, using the pilot-scale digester to prove the case for the industrial-scale digester in development in the yard, refer to the case study in our Toolkit of resources.

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