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Finnish startup Solar Foods has come up with a way to produce a
protein-rich food called Solein from electricity, water and air, by
using an environment-friendly process similar to brewing beer.
Described as the world’s most environmentally friendly protein, Solein
is is made by applying electricity to water to release bubbles of carbon
dioxide and hydrogen. Living microbes are then added to the liquid to
feed on the carbon dioxide and hydrogen bubbles and produce the Solein,
which is then dried to make the powder. It’a natural fermentation
process similar to beer brewing, but it requires a special reactor that
reportedly resembles a hurricane lantern. The dried Solein has a protein
content of 50 percent and looks and tastes just like wheat flour. It can
be used in all kinds of diets and can be 3D-printed for added texture.
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“It is a completely new kind of food, a new kind of protein, different
to all the food on the market today in how it is produced as it does not
need agriculture or aquaculture,” Dr Pasi Vainikka, the chief executive
of Solar Foods told The Guardian. “It offers a unified solution that
caters to every imaginable meal or diet of today, while also creating
opportunities for entirely new foods of tomorrow.”
The process used to produce Solein – converting hydrogen and carbon
dioxide to calories – is amazingly scalable, as the wonder food can be
produced anywhere in the world. It’s also 10 times more energy-efficient
per hectare than photosynthesis, and 10 to 100 times more environment
and climate-friendly in water use than animal or plant-based food
production.
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“One of the reasons why meat has become so important to our diets is
that it is an excellent source of high quality protein. Solein – the
protein produced by Solar Foods – also contains all the essential amino
acids, but because it is produced using carbon dioxide and electricity
it does not require large amounts of land to produce,” the Solar Foods
website explains. “Another unique characteristic of Solein is that it is
able to take carbon directly from carbon dioxide without needing a
source of sugar. Other processes that utilize microbes for protein
production, for example egg albumen or milk protein, require
agricultural land for producing the carbon source.”
While Solar Foods does not expect Solein to challenge conventional
protein production methods in the next two decades, it does expect it to
become a “new harvest” for humanity, which is significant considering so
far we have only relied on plants and animals for sustenance. The
Helsinki-based company plans to open its first Solein factory at the end
of 2021 and scale up production to two billion meals per year by 2022. |