Issue 15/2017 - Finnish scientists synthesize proteins using electricity and carbon dioxide

Recently, the National Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology have jointly developed a new method for synthesizing proteins based on electricity and carbon dioxide, and the proteins produced can be used to make food and feed
in the future.
According to reports, this method is to connect electricity into a bioreactor containing water and microorganisms, electrolyze the water into hydrogen and oxygen, and inject carbon dioxide
into the reactor at the same time.
Under the action of nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus and other micronutrients provided, the microorganisms in the reactor are continuously proliferated to synthesize proteins, and then the cultured microorganisms are dehydrated to form a protein powder
similar to dry yeast.

Currently, it takes about 2 weeks
to produce 1 gram of protein in a laboratory using a biological reaction equipment the size of a coffee cup.
According to the researchers, producing proteins in this way is nearly 10 times more efficient than plant photosynthesis, and without the use of pesticides
.
Their next step is to dramatically improve production efficiency and translate the results into commercial production
.

Juha-Pekka Pitcänen, chief scientist at the Finnish National Centre for Technology, said that blends produced with this protein will have high nutritional value and can be adapted to the nutritional content
of foods by changing microorganisms during production.
He predicts that in the future, it may even be possible to invent a household reaction device that will allow people to produce proteins
for daily life at home.