4 ms·

Can't vouch for this company, but it is apparently happening. https://solarfoods.fi https://solarfoods.fi They supposedly create "proteins...produced from CO2

by gibolt 7y ago

Can't vouch for this company, but it is apparently happening. https://solarfoods.fi https://solarfoods.fi They supposedly create "proteins...produced from CO2, water, and electricity." According to their numbers, yield per unit of water is 10x soy and at least 500x beef.

EamonnMR 7y ago
I have my doubts about the viability of that for earth based food, but for it's original purpose of making food on Mars (where water is precious and CO2 can be had from the ice cap) it's brilliant.
saiya-jin 7y ago
Hmm, looks interesting but I wonder how they actually manufacture proteins. I mean there are tons of aminoacids, all highly complex structures and body needs full set of them in good ratios to digest them. Plus protein are only 1 type of body input - what about carbs, fat, minerals, vitamins etc.
saiya-jin 7y ago
Hmm, looks interesting but I wonder how they actually manufacture proteins. I mean there are tons of aminoacids, all highly complex structures and body needs full set of them in good ratios to digest them. I don't see any technical details on their web, and stuff like "inspired by cleanest air on earth" means nothing really. Plus protein are only 1 type of body input - what about carbs, fat, minerals, vitamins etc.
- moftz 7y ago
  It looks like they also include "nutrients & vitamins" in with the process. You need nitrogen for protein so I wasn't really sure how they were making nitrogen from nothing.
gus_massa 7y ago
It's difficult to find detailed info about what they do, but looking at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636 the main point is that they are not producing proteins "chemically", they produce Hydrogen and use the Hydrogen as "food" for some bacteria or yeast (I'm not sure) and then they filter the bacteria or yeast, and they sold that as "single-celled protein", that is a mix of protein, fats and carbohydrates and other things (like meat, cheese, ...). It's important that they also use some vitamins and nutrients, but it's not clear what they mean, and there is a lot of room for cheating here. With CO2, water and electricity you can produce carbohydrates and fat, but you can't produce proteins because proteins have Nitrogen, so the question is what is their source of Nitrogen? You can get Nitrogen from the N2 in the air, but it's very difficult to transform the N2 of the air into a form that can be used by living things. Only some bacteria and archaea can do that. But yeast, fungus, animals and plants can't do that. (Some plants (and animals?) host some bacteria to get usable Nitrogen in exchange of food and protection.) We can transform N2 from the air into ammonia (or something similar) in an industrial plant, it uses a lot of electricity. It's one of the biggest invention of the XX century. Without artificial ammonia the global agricultura production would fall to less than the half of the current level. So ignoring the source of the Nitrogen in a system to produce proteins is very misleading.

by gibolt 7y ago

EamonnMR 7y ago

I have my doubts about the viability of that for earth based food, but for it's original purpose of making food on Mars (where water is precious and CO2 can be had from the ice cap) it's brilliant.

saiya-jin 7y ago

Hmm, looks interesting but I wonder how they actually manufacture proteins. I mean there are tons of aminoacids, all highly complex structures and body needs full set of them in good ratios to digest them. Plus protein are only 1 type of body input - what about carbs, fat, minerals, vitamins etc.

saiya-jin 7y ago

Hmm, looks interesting but I wonder how they actually manufacture proteins. I mean there are tons of aminoacids, all highly complex structures and body needs full set of them in good ratios to digest them. I don't see any technical details on their web, and stuff like "inspired by cleanest air on earth" means nothing really. Plus protein are only 1 type of body input - what about carbs, fat, minerals, vitamins etc.

moftz 7y ago
It looks like they also include "nutrients & vitamins" in with the process. You need nitrogen for protein so I wasn't really sure how they were making nitrogen from nothing.

gus_massa 7y ago

It's difficult to find detailed info about what they do, but looking at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636 the main point is that they are not producing proteins "chemically", they produce Hydrogen and use the Hydrogen as "food" for some bacteria or yeast (I'm not sure) and then they filter the bacteria or yeast, and they sold that as "single-celled protein", that is a mix of protein, fats and carbohydrates and other things (like meat, cheese, ...). It's important that they also use some vitamins and nutrients, but it's not clear what they mean, and there is a lot of room for cheating here. With CO2, water and electricity you can produce carbohydrates and fat, but you can't produce proteins because proteins have Nitrogen, so the question is what is their source of Nitrogen? You can get Nitrogen from the N2 in the air, but it's very difficult to transform the N2 of the air into a form that can be used by living things. Only some bacteria and archaea can do that. But yeast, fungus, animals and plants can't do that. (Some plants (and animals?) host some bacteria to get usable Nitrogen in exchange of food and protection.) We can transform N2 from the air into ammonia (or something similar) in an industrial plant, it uses a lot of electricity. It's one of the biggest invention of the XX century. Without artificial ammonia the global agricultura production would fall to less than the half of the current level. So ignoring the source of the Nitrogen in a system to produce proteins is very misleading.