Making Food Out of Thin Air
Exploring an innovative method to get rid of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide
Introduction
With the global population about to explode to 10 billion people by 2050, the reality is that our current food system will not last and will not be able to meet the needs of our future global population.
The world’s food systems are under greater strain. Population growth coupled with escalating demand for meat and dairy, which accounts for more than 50% of food‑related greenhouse gases, and 80% of all agricultural land use, means that there is an eminent need to find more sustainable sources of food. Also, due to the excess carbon emissions, climate change has greatly influenced agriculture and dairy industries.
With the help of synthetic biology, we can now convert Carbon dioxide (CO₂) into delicious, life-sustaining nutrition.
The Technology
The technology behind it comes from an idea first explored by NASA in the 1960s when scientists while trying to figure out how to feed astronauts in space, discovered that it was possible to use microbes to convert CO₂ produced by astronauts — into food.
The idea is to feed atmospheric CO₂ to microbes in fermentation tanks to get a final product- a protein-rich flour that can be used just like soy or pea flour.
This protein flour can then be made into a plethora of delicious and nutritious, seemingly meat-like products.
This process is possible because of microbes called hydrogenotrophs that metabolize hydrogen and carbon dioxide for energy. These microbes convert carbon dioxide to methane using energy derived from hydrogen (H₂) molecules.
About The Microbes
These microbes are strictly anaerobic, meaning they can’t survive in the presence of oxygen. They are cultivated in fermentation tanks.
Electricity from renewable sources is used to perform electrolysis, the process of using electricity to break apart water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
H₂ is then supplied to the microbes, which the microbes use to generate energy for growth while consuming CO₂ captured from the atmosphere.
As a result, once they’ve proliferated, they can be dehydrated and processed into a flour-like product that is rich in protein and carbohydrates.
The Plus Points
- Unlike soy or other plant protein, it’s a “complete protein,” with the same amino acid profile as protein in beef or chicken.
- It also has vitamins such as B12 that aren’t typically found in vegan food.
- Unlike some animal protein, it doesn’t have any antibiotics and hormones.
- The process runs on renewable energy.
- It is made without the need for traditional land, water and weather requirements, making it a neat solution to the environmental crisis.
- It can be made in days instead of months, thus reducing the strain on the food supply chain.
- It can be used as a useful alternative to meat products, thus increasing its usefulness manifold times.
Meat production isn’t environmentally sustainable as producing a single quarter-pound (around 113 grams) grain-fed beef burger consumes around 1,700 litres of water and results in about 3 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. The environmental cost of meat production is disproportionate to its output, and livestock farming occupies roughly 80% of agricultural land, which contributes to significant deforestation, but accounts for only 18% of calories consumed worldwide.
Conclusion
Environmental friendly alternatives are the need of the hour. The benefit is the ability to withstand worsening climate conditions and remain resource-efficient. Additionally, hydrogenotrophic organisms are easily found in nature, and therefore they can be easily acquired. Since the whole process takes place in an enclosed tank unaffected by environmental conditions like weather or soil quality, the protein-yielding microbes can be cultivated practically anywhere at any time. This provides a potential food source in deserts and other areas where agriculture is not well supported. Now that making food out of air no longer sounds like crazy sorcery, you may be thinking, wow, that’s neat, but will I really be spooning powdered carbon dioxide-eating microbes into my mouth. It’s most likely that the protein flour would be incorporated into protein-enriched foods and beverages like pasta, bread, and shakes or into more sustainable feed for livestock and other animals. Moreover, we can also combine it with existing alternative-protein products, like plant-based burgers and yoghurts that depend on plant protein isolates, to further cut down their environmental costs of production as they expand to meet growing consumer demand.
At last, the biggest advantage about these is that you’re killing two birds with one stone — capturing carbon waste while generating food products and removing the strain from agricultural markets. These will play a big role in improving our environment.
References
- A Bay Area startup is working to make ‘air meat’ using protein-producing microbes discovered by NASA. (2021).
- Cumbers, J. (2021). Carbon-Negative Food Made From Thin Air? This Science Fiction Idea May Be A Reality Sooner Than You Think. Forbes.
- Michail, N. (2021). Making food out of thin air. figlobal.com.
- Aouf, R. (2021). Making protein from CO2 can “remove the climate impact of food” says Solar Foods CEO.
- Food, S. (2021). Food Out of Thin Air: A Novel Approach to Alternative Protein | Food Technology |. Science Meets Food.
