Silab Dedicates Biotech Facility

Silab has dedicated a 100 ton/year biomass faciity. The €5 million investment is devoted to large-scale cell culturing, for yeasts and micro-algae. It is the sixth facility expansion since the company since it was founded 30 years ago. The new facility was built upstream of the three current production lines dedicated to cosmetic active ingredients. The project, conceived 10 years ago, offers practical solutions to consumers’ changing needs, market demand and legislation on naturalness, efficacy and safety, according to Silab. Yeasts and micro-algae are environmentally-friendly, natural raw materials that respect biodiversity. Rich in active molecules of interest, they are then used by the company as raw materials to manufacture its purified active ingredients that have been proven safe.


This biotechnology production unit dedicated to cell culturing was commissioned in 2014. It is a unique, high-technology, automated tool in line with the ICPE regulation governing installations classified for environmental protection, according to Silab.The facility can produce approximately 1 ton of biomass from a tube of only 1 milliliter of mother cells within one week. The entire process is automated and supervised by monitoring software and sensors to ensure quality, traceability and reproducibility. These latest-generation technological resources are managed by a qualified team of technicians and engineers who are trained on a regular basis. Control of the scale-up from laboratory stage (5L) to industrial stage (5,500L) is therefore complete, making it possible to respond to customers’ quality and volume needs.


Silab already markets a wide range of active ingredients (anti-wrinkle, skin complexion, moisturizing, repairing, etc.) made from unicellular organisms. They comply with the same specifications as plant-based active ingredients; i.e., they have controlled cost and quality, identified active molecules and proven efficacy.