Solecta Launches SolectaINSIGHTS

Prices for high-protein whey ingredients have more than doubled in less than a year in key markets and processing capacity is the bottleneck; recovering the protein that aging membrane elements give away is the fastest capacity a plant can recover.

Boston, MA — September 1, 2026 — Solecta, a brand of Acuriant Technologies, Inc., today announced the launch of SolectaINSIGHTS, a performance analysis service that shows a dairy processor when its elements have crossed the point where replacement pays for itself.

Most dairy processors replace elements on a fixed schedule rather than based on how each one is performing. That has been the standard approach for years, and a reasonable one. Without ongoing visibility into individual membrane performance, a calendar is the most practical way to plan. The cost is that elements can be losing money for months before its scheduled change-out.

An aging membrane gives up protein a little at a time. The loss leaves in the permeate instead of showing up on a monthly report, and by the time margin slips enough to notice, it has been building for months. Solecta field casework puts the recoverable share at 2 to 5 percentage points of protein yield.

That protein has never been worth more. USDA Dairy Market News reported whey protein isolate above $14 a pound in late July, with buyers expecting further increases on firm demand and very limited availability, and WPC 80 in the upper $12s in late June. WPC values have roughly doubled in two years. The constraint behind the rise is the capacity to convert liquid whey into high-protein ingredients rather than the supply of whey itself.

“The industry’s answer to a protein shortage is new capacity, and new capacity takes years,” said Jürgen von Hollen, CEO of Acuriant Technologies, Inc. “The fastest path to additional protein capture sits inside plants already running, in the milk they buy every day. SolectaINSIGHTS shows processors, on their own data, the month an elements start giving that protein away, so they make the replacement call on numbers rather than on the calendar.”

SolectaINSIGHTS runs on a monthly cycle and does not require remote access to the plant. A participating processor submits operating data: permeate protein percentage, flow rates and pressures. A Solecta applications engineer analyzes it and returns a report covering the performance trend for each loop, a recommended replacement date, and the dollar value of the protein currently leaving in permeate followed by a review call. The result is a single figure for each line: the flip point, the month an aging elements start costing more than a new one would.

Scott LaRoche, Director of Applications Engineering at Solecta, said the idea grew out of a pattern the company’s engineers kept spotting in their own reviews. “We kept seeing the same thing, elements in operation that had already lost more protein value than their replacement would cost.” Scott said. “SolectaINSIGHTS turns that pattern into something every plant we work with can track month to month.”

SolectaINSIGHTS launches today after a two-year private run with a top-10 US cheese processor, which has made 100 percent of its membrane change-out decisions on the monthly reports over that period. Solecta’s applications engineering team has commissioned more than 500 dairy installations, and that work shaped how SolectaINSIGHTS calculates a plant’s flip point.

More information is available at SolectaINSIGHTS | Solecta.

About Solecta

Solecta, an Acuriant brand, provides polymeric membrane solutions across microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis for dairy, food ingredients, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing. The company’s applications engineers work within the client’s process to improve membrane system performance against defined operational and economic targets. www.solecta.com

About Acuriant Technologies Inc.

Acuriant Technologies Inc. is a global leader in advanced separation and filtration solutions, uniting the strengths of Nanostone for ceramic UF and Solecta for polymeric membrane separation. Under its Nanostone brand, Acuriant delivers high-performance ceramic UF membranes used in municipal drinking water, surface water treatment, wastewater reuse, desalination pretreatment, and industrial process and reuse applications across sectors such as power, mining, semiconductor and microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, and food & beverage. Headquartered in Boston with operations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific, Acuriant supports customers in addressing some of the world’s most complex water and process challenges. www.acuriant.com

For more information, please contact:

Brittney Zeller, Global Marketing Director [email protected] +1-760-630-9643