Posted on 07/31/2017 8:08:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Electric Bioreactor Farm
Finnish researchers have created a batch of single-cell protein that is nutritious enough to serve for dinner using a system powered by renewable energy. The entire process requires only electricity, water, carbon dioxide, and microbes. The synthetic food was created as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
After exposing the raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, the process forms a powder that consists of more than 50 percent protein and 25 percent carbohydrates — the texture can also be changed by altering the microbes used in the production.
(DIAGRAM-AT-LINK)
The next stage, according to Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, principal scientist at VTT, is to optimize the system because, currently, a bioreactor the size of a coffee cup takes around two weeks to produce one gram of the protein. Pitkänen said in a LUT press release, “We are currently focusing on developing the technology: reactor concepts, technology, improving efficiency, and controlling the process.”
He predicted that it would take about a decade before a more efficient incarnation of the system would be widely available — “Maybe 10 years is a realistic timeframe for reaching commercial capacity, in terms of the necessary legislation and process technology.”
A World Without Hunger
The potential impact of food produced using electricity and other widely available raw materials is enormous. Currently, there are two main ways that it could be used.
First, as a means of feeding starving people and providing a source of food in areas that are not suited to agricultural production. Pitkänen said that, in the future, “the technology can be transported to, for instance, deserts and other areas facing famine,” providing a source of cheap and nutritious food to those who need it most.
The machine also works independently of environmental factors, meaning that it could feed people consistently — Jero Ahola, a Professor at LUT, said in the press release that it “does not require a location with the conditions for agriculture, such as the right temperature, humidity or a certain soil type.”
Second, as a means of decreasing global emissions by reducing the demand for food livestock and the crops necessary to feed them. Currently, the meat industry accounts for between 14 and 18 percent of global emissions of greenhouse gases, as well as taking up swarths of land that could be applied for other ends.
The food from electricity project could decrease the amount of unsustainable farming needed to fill our bellies as it provides us with a smaller, cheaper, and renewable method of getting our nutrients. Other solutions to this problem include lab-grown meat or turning to insect farming, which produces less waste and requires less energy.
I don’t know about lectricity but I have been a large gas producer for a long time.
A day late and a dollar short... their product's no longer needed. What is needed is a microbe that shrinks the stomach and makes couches uncomfortable to sit on.
This doesn’t sound like it’ll solve anything.
I can’t stop laughing you are hilarious!
No it tastes like single cell lutefisk.
You are just a denier..... a microwave denier.
And after a year or so you can have the chicken for lunch.
Don't think you can eat a bioreactor.
Submit that to the Nobel Prize committee and they will call the competition off and award you the prize without actually having to prove anything, in the grand tradition of Barack Obama. Brilliant!
Lol! My very first thought while reading this article.
It’s a cookbook!
You can also make flour from crickets
A million dollar grant funded replacement for a 98 cent wall mart tomato plant.
How do you like your microbes; sunny side up or over easy?
Prepared with 120 or 220, AC or direct?
“So, it’s gonna come down to nuke plants after all. (Udderwise, Globull Warming will drown us all).”
Not so fast... They need that vile pollutant CO2 according to article :
“The entire process requires only electricity, water, carbon dioxide, and microbes.”
By the time this comes to pass I will be long gone
......I hope. All you youngsters be sure to enjoy
your nothing burgers!
A common theme in these ‘future food’ stories is that the creators of this stuff have absolutely no intention of eating it. It’s for us, the unwashed masses who would be happy to start the day with a nice refreshing chocolate flavored cricket and earthworm nutrition shake, because we haven’t the sophistication or intellect to appreciate a good steak or lobster tail.
“It’s about jobs”
—James Baker
No one can tell us how it tastes -- because the other 25% is cyanide... '-)
"The entire process requires only electricity, water, carbon dioxide, and microbes."
Sounds like they made food out of microbes using electricity.
In other news, I made nachos from microwaves.
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