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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

gas fermentation

ADM Partners With Air Protein to Make ‘Landless’ Protein From CO2

Today ADM announced a partnership with Air Protein, a company developing technology to make protein out of thin air, using carbon dioxide as a feedstock.

According to the announcement, the two companies have entered a Strategic Development Agreement (SDA) to advance the development and production of this protein that can be developed without arable land. The agreement leverages ADM’s expertise in nutrition and research and Air Protein’s protein production technology to expand the protein ecosystem and deliver sustainable, cost-effective ingredients for meat substitutes. The two companies will collaborate to build the first commercial-scale production facility for air protein.

The foundation of Air Protein’s protein production methodology (sometimes referred to as gas fermentation) was developed in the 1960s as NASA explored ways to produce food in space. While the technology was shelved for decades, it has been dusted off in recent years as a new cohort of startups has started to explore new ways to create proteins more sustainably.

One of the problems often cited in the alt protein space is an over-reliance on glucose as a feedstock, and many see the development of lower-cost and more sustainable feedstocks as necessary for the continued growth of the industry. Air protein and other companies using gas fermentation technology leverage single-cell organisms to convert CO2 into protein, opening the door to a possibly more sustainable method for fueling future growth in alternative proteins.

Another benefit of gas fermentation is that it disconnects protein production from arable land. Many developing economies neither have arable farmland nor resources to produce cheap and abundant protein; this technology could provide a pathway to produce protein in emerging markets.

Given the company’s size and importance in the global food supply chain, ADM’s entry into the air protein space could be a further validation of this nascent technology. One has to wonder if ADM’s stamp of approval will spur further interest in the technology across the food value chain, encouraging other big food system players to partner with some of the other companies in this space, which include Solar Foods, Deep Branch Biotechnology, and Air Company.

Deep Branch Secures €2.5M to Scale Up Production of Novel Protein Using CO2 Inputs

Alternative protein company Deep Branch has secured €2.5 million (~$2.9 million USD) in new funding from the European Investment Council (EIC) Accelerator to scale up production of the company’s novel, single-cell protein called Proton. The funding will be used to build a production facility in the Netherlands that the company hopes will be operational by Q2 of next year, according to a release sent to The Spoon.

The announcement comes just months after Deep Branch secured government funding from the UK through an organization called the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), which funded nine projects to the tune of $30 million to help advance zero-emission farming and greater food sovereignty within the UK.

One of those projects is REACT-FIRST, which is a consortium centered around Deep Branch’s technology that creates protein using CO2 inputs from industrial emissions. Deep Branch, which has developed an animal feed formula using its novel single-cell protein that has a nutritional profile similar to that of fishmeal, was working with nine other partners as part of REACT-FIRST to create a sustainable protein research and production value chain.

With today’s news, Deep Branch is expanding to mainland Europe as part of an effort to accelerate the scaling of production for the company’s novel protein. The new funding will help the company build out a production facility at the Netherlands-based Brightlands Chemelot Campus, a European hub focused on providing space and infrastructure for circular chemistry and chemical processes. The new facility will, according to the release, “enable Deep Branch to scale up increasing production to enable animal feed manufacturers to expedite performance testing of the new protein.”

“Brightlands Chemelot Campus is the ideal location for our Scale-Up Centre, and there is a clear alignment between our goals and the facility’s overall ambitions for CO2 recycling and sustainable hydrogen use,”said Deep Branch CEO Peter Rowe in the release. “The industrial site gives us the ability to scale up quickly and has room for a large-scale production facility as well as the raw materials to create Proton. We have access to everything we need.”

Deep Branch will be working with feed producers BioMar and AB Agri as part of the scale up and optimization.

“Setting up the pilot plant represents an important next step in finding the perfect recipe for Proton that meets the requirements of feed producers,” said Rowe.

Deep Branch is one of a small cohort of new startups that have launched over the past few years focused on developing protein using a process called gas fermentation. (Check out Spoon Plus report on the topic here.) Others include Air Protein, Solar Foods and NovoNutrients. Last year, the European Space Agency started working with Solar Foods to develop the technology for use in space to feed astronauts.

The UK Launches Nine Ag and Food Tech Projects, Including ‘Air Protein’ Consortium Called REACT-FIRST

Today the United Kingdom announced a total of nine projects that will receive a total of £24 million (~$30 million USD) in funding to help accelerate the advancement of zero-emission farming and greater food sovereignty within the UK.

The organization leading the overall effort is UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) under what is called the Transforming Food Production challenge. Per today’s announcement, the challenge “aims to set food production systems on the trajectory to net zero emissions by 2040 producing food in ways that are more efficient, resilient and sustainable.”

One of the new projects that will receive funding is called REACT-FIRST, a consortium led by air protein startup Deep Branch Biotechnology. REACT-FIRST will build a scalable route towards protein generation using CO2 inputs and a process generally described by the industry as gas fermentation. The initiative will be comprised of 10 industry and academic partners that will essentially build out a research and scale protein value chain around Deep Branch’s technology.

This value chain and its various partners will look something like the graphic above, which was provided by REACT-FIRST. In this new scaled value chain, Drax, a single-site renewable energy generator will provide captured CO2 and Deep Branch’s technology will convert it to into a novel single-cell protein called Proton.

From there, the Proton SCP will either be converted to fish or poultry feeds with the help of BioMar (large aquafeed producer) or AB Agri (large poultry feed producer). Researchers from the University of Stirling and Nottingham Trent University will work on nutrition assessment. Retailer Sainsbury and others develop ways to scale the production of this new feed.

Deep Branch is one of a small cohort of new startups that have launched over the past few years focused on developing protein using a process called gas fermentation (check out Spoon Plus report on the topic here). Others include Air Protein, Solar Foods and NovoNutrients. Last year, the European Space Agency started working with Solar Foods to develop the technology for use in space to feed astronauts.

Other projects within this broad initiative from the United Kingdom include everything from autonomous robotic farming systems (Robot Highways led by Saga Robotics) to hydroponic grow systems (Production at the Point of Consumption led by Evogro) to new algae grow systems for food production in deserts (AGRI-SATT led by Feed Algae). Each project consists of a funding for research and a variety of partners to help accelerate the time to market and scaling of the technologies.

As We Enter a New Decade, Space Food Has Suddenly Rocketed Into Renewed Prominence

As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, I’ve always had a fascination with space food.

Whether it was the idea of astronauts drinking Tang or reading stories about how the Space Shuttle crews would prepare their meals and then try to eat in the microgravity environment of space, I couldn’t get enough info about how human space travelers fed themselves.

In a way, it was the very idea that these rigorously trained astronauts flying billion dollar equipment hundreds of miles above the earth’s surface still had to find time to prepare a meal that made the idea of space travel that much more relatable to a kid like me.

And so now, for someone who has always been fascinated with the idea of feeding people hundreds or millions of miles away from earth, I have to say this past year has been an exciting one. That’s because every few weeks or so a new story pops up about some new research effort to develop ways to feed people in zero gravity.

In short, as we leave one decade and enter a new one, it seems space food has rocketed back into prominence.

Here’s a sample of some of the space food news from 2019:

In October, Aleph Farms grew meat cells in space. For the first time ever, meat cells were produced in zero gravity as this Israeli startup made “great steaks” using a 3D bioprinter in the Russian section of the International Space Station.

In November, a Cygnus rocket launched carrying samples of red wine. A French startup called Space Cargo Unlimited is sending the vino into orbit with the intention of studying how space radiation and being in a state of constant free-fall impacts biological aging processes.

Accompanying the wine on this same rocket trip into space was an oven designed for actually cooking food in orbit. Astronauts usually eat pre-cooked food heated with water, but if this oven works they will actually be able to cook food in space. In late December, a space crew aboard the International Space Station baked sugar cookies using the space oven and will bring them back to earth to study them.

Just last week, we heard that SpaceX will be flying coffee and hemp cultures into space this year to see how what the impact zero gravity has on the plants. Colorado-based agricultural company Front Range Biosciences is partnering with SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe Space Technologies to put 480 samples aboard a March 2020 cargo flight from Elon Musk’s space startup.

Elon’s brother Kimball also is thinking about feeding people in space with his own startup Square Roots, developing self-contained hydroponic farm modules that he says could one day be used on Mars.

Earlier this year we heard about Space Food-X, a Japanese consortium of 30 or so companies, researchers and governmental organizations looking to develop ways to better feed people in space. Led by Japanese space agency JAXA, venture capital firm RealTech Fund and consulting firm SigmaXYZ, the group has a five-phase plan stretching through 2040 to develop sustainable food systems.

Above: The future of space food as envisioned by Japan’s Space Food-X

With the glut of space food news over the past year or so, it got me to wondering why? Why is there a rapidly growing interest in feeding people in space?

One obvious reason is the renewed interest in space travel in the US and abroad. With Space-X and Blue Origin inching us closer to more affordable space travel and Russia, China and the European Union investing heavily in space programs, it just makes sense that developing food systems for space would be a part of that.

I also think it’s because we’ve moving closer to a reality of long-term space travel and permanent habitation. Whether it’s the actual habitation of Mars or some other place in the galaxy, simply packing up freeze dried food won’t cut it. If there are people on a space station or a settlement on Mars, we need to develop ways to feed them over long time periods in space, which means actually growing food in space.

Finally, if we learned anything from the first space race between the US and the Soviet Union, it’s that the effort to feed people in orbit ends up paying dividends here on earth. Sure, you get fun foods like Tang and freeze dried ice cream, but there’s also big ideas like gas fermentation born out of space agency research decades ago that is being further developed today as a way to create more sustainable protein sources.

So as we enter a new decade, I have to say the space food nerd in me is getting pretty excited, not only because it seems we’re seeing real effort across the globe to develop sustainable food systems for space that could help would-be Mars colonizers feed themselves someday, but also because I’m excited to see how all this effort to develop food in the toughest of environments could be used to feed us non-astronauts here on Earth.

Solar Foods Will Start Selling Gas-Fermented Protein by 2021

Making protein from thin air may sound like something out of science fiction, but it’s exactly what the Helsinki, Finland-based company Solar Foods is doing. They use a technique called gas fermentation to create edible protein using only two inputs: air and electricity.

A few months ago we got to interview Solar Foods CEO Pasi Vainikka and learned that the company was gearing up for an initial product launch in 2021. By 2022 they plan to build a factor factory that could make 50 million meals worth of their protein — called solein — per year.

It seems Solar Foods is sticking to their timeline — and even accelerating it. This weekend The Guardian reported that the Finnish company plans to sell 50 million meal’s worth of solein in supermarkets within two years (so, by 2021). The solein will apparently look and taste like flour and cost €5 ($5.64) per kilo. It will be used as an ingredient to add protein to food products, and can also apparently be woven into fibers to mimic meat or bread.

Solar Foods plans to apply to the EU for a novel food license by the end of this year so that they can stay on track to begin commercial production in 2021. They’ve already started pre-engineering on their factory.

While I’m all for making protein for unexpected sources, I wonder if this timeline is a little ambitious. Solar Foods has a couple of obstacles to contend with that might make their vision to put solein in 50 million supermarket meals in the next two years a little… tricky.

The first hurdle is regulation. The European Commission describes novel food as “derived from new production processes (UV-treated food (milk, bread, mushrooms, and yeast.))” Solein is made by genetically engineered bacteria. That certainly falls under the umbrella of new production processes, but the EU is notoriously cautious of GMO’s, so they might be hesitant to approve solein. At the very least, hoping for a less than two-year turnaround for regulatory approval is… optimistic.

The second hurdle for Solar Foods will be consumer acceptance. Will people want to eat protein that’s made from carbon dioxide processed through bacteria? It doesn’t sound terribly appetizing. Then again, according to Vainikka solein will have quite a neutral flavor and appearance, so maybe consumers wouldn’t even know.

Regardless of whether they meet their 2021 production goals, Solar Foods is on track to be the first company to bring gas fermented protein to market. But they won’t be the last. In the U.S. Kiverdi and are Novo Nutrients transforming CO2 into products like oils and fish food. Across the pond, U.K.-based Deep Branch Biotechnology is making animal feed out of the CO2 in industrial waste gas.

Gas fermentation could have implications far beyond the feed lots or the grocery store. Solar Foods is working with the European Space Agency to make a prototype device which could make protein for space missions. So come 2021 (or, you know, later), you could soon theoretically be eating the same diet as an astronaut. Talk about science fiction.

Podcast: Making Food Out of Thin Air

If you’re a foodtech nerd like me, chances are you’ve seen a few articles lately about a small group of startups working on a new technique to essentially food “out of thin air”. What makes this technology even more intriguing is it creates a new food source that is entirely disconnected from agriculture-based resources – yes, both animal AND plant-based inputs – to create proteins with a negligible impact on our the environment. The method they use is called “gas fermentation”.

Our own Catherine Lamb had a great piece diving into the tech behind gas fermentation and looking at the companies working on creating products for embryonic market. I found myself so fascinated by this new method of creating protein that I decided to invite the CEO of Solar Foods, Pasi Vainikka, onto a podcast so I could learn a little more about this space and just when we can expect food created with this new process to hit our plates.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking play below, through Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast app, or just by downloading it direct to your machine.