3 ms·

Deep Branch, CO₂-to-protein platform for animal feed

15 points by aghilmort 5y ago

londons_explore 5y ago
This site feels very buzzword heavy and science-light for a company trying to do innovative science... Do they even have a rough plan of what they're doing? Or is the aim simply to take investment money for a few years and then fold?
- aghilmort 5y ago
  ok, so it's not just me?
contravariant 5y ago
Curious how they're reluctant to mention that one of their ingredients is ammonia. It's immediately obvious that you can't make protein from just CO2 and H2 but for some reason NH3 is only mentioned in one somewhat hidden location on their website and nowhere else.
- jryb 5y ago
  The pitch video is pretty heavily oriented towards investors - much of it was dedicated to their current grants and collaborative partners, and implies they're still developing the process. I can imagine they're working on CO2 sequestration first since customers would sign up for that just for greenwashing purposes, and they'll try to do nitrogen fixation afterwards to make it genuinely sustainable. I doubt most people even realize there's a problem with the whole CO2->protein concept. They do show a diagram where an electrolyzer is used to generate H2 and that's pumped directly into the fermentation vessel. Maybe they're engineering the yeast or whatever they're using to metabolize H2 and also gave them a nitrogenase. Is this even feasible?
danuker 5y ago
Here's some CO2 to protein process I would trust: grow non-GMO legumes.
- culopatin 5y ago
  Can you explain what the GMO aspect provides? Were heirloom legumes better at capturing CO2 or they just yield more per unit of land so you have to use less land and therefore allow more forests to remain untouched?
  - danuker 5y ago
    The problem I have with GMO plants is that they are engineered to be specific-pesticide-resistant. More exactly, Roundup by Monsanto, which is not as safe as regular pesticides that do not kill regular plants. https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/gmo/ https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/gmo/ As for synthetic protein, I am skeptical it can be cheaper than that grown by plants using processes evolved over billions of years.

15 points by aghilmort 5y ago

This site feels very buzzword heavy and science-light for a company trying to do innovative science... Do they even have a rough plan of what they're doing? Or is the aim simply to take investment money for a few years and then fold?

aghilmort 5y ago
ok, so it's not just me?

contravariant 5y ago

Curious how they're reluctant to mention that one of their ingredients is ammonia. It's immediately obvious that you can't make protein from just CO2 and H2 but for some reason NH3 is only mentioned in one somewhat hidden location on their website and nowhere else.

jryb 5y ago
The pitch video is pretty heavily oriented towards investors - much of it was dedicated to their current grants and collaborative partners, and implies they're still developing the process. I can imagine they're working on CO2 sequestration first since customers would sign up for that just for greenwashing purposes, and they'll try to do nitrogen fixation afterwards to make it genuinely sustainable. I doubt most people even realize there's a problem with the whole CO2->protein concept. They do show a diagram where an electrolyzer is used to generate H2 and that's pumped directly into the fermentation vessel. Maybe they're engineering the yeast or whatever they're using to metabolize H2 and also gave them a nitrogenase. Is this even feasible?

danuker 5y ago

Here's some CO2 to protein process I would trust: grow non-GMO legumes.

culopatin 5y ago
Can you explain what the GMO aspect provides? Were heirloom legumes better at capturing CO2 or they just yield more per unit of land so you have to use less land and therefore allow more forests to remain untouched?
- danuker 5y ago
  The problem I have with GMO plants is that they are engineered to be specific-pesticide-resistant. More exactly, Roundup by Monsanto, which is not as safe as regular pesticides that do not kill regular plants. https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/gmo/ https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/gmo/ As for synthetic protein, I am skeptical it can be cheaper than that grown by plants using processes evolved over billions of years.