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Could our future meals originate from electricity and air? This intriguing concept has become a reality thanks to a Finnish startup. Recently, Solar Foods in Vantaa, near Helsinki, inaugurated its first facility dedicated to producing food from air and solar energy. The site is set to produce 160 tonnes of food annually, a development that could significantly reduce the environmental footprint of traditional farming. The promise of solein The innovative product at the heart of this venture is solein, a protein-rich powder made from single-cell organisms. These are cultivated using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which...

UC Riverside and the University of Delaware say they have found a method to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis, allowing them to create food without sunlight via artificial photosynthesis... The researchers...used a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, which is the main component in vinegar. They then applied the acetate to food-producing organisms in the dark, causing these organisms to grow. UC Riverside researchers...say they can combine their method with solar panels to generate the electricity required to power the electrolysis. This would increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food by up...

Plants are growing in complete darkness in an acetate medium that replaces biological photosynthesis. Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat. This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant. Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis. The research, published in Nature Food,...