Beyond the farm: making edible protein from CO2 via hybrid bioinorganic electrosynthesis

Mingyi Xu; Huihui Zhou; Rusen Zou; Xiaoyong Yang; Yanyan Su; Irini Angelidaki; Yifeng Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007

Beyond the farm: making edible protein from CO₂ via hybrid bioinorganic electrosynthesis

Mingyi Xu
, Huihui Zhou
, Rusen Zou
, Xiaoyong Yang
, Yanyan Su
, Irini Angelidaki
, Yifeng Zhang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Technical University of Denmark
Carlsberg Research Center

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

Climate change and food shortage are two of the defining challenges in the coming decades. Considering that conventional approaches for protein production may associate with negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, alternative protein sources that rely on inexhaustible substrates/energy should be pursued. In this proof-of-concept study, we propose a two-stage bioinorganic electrosynthesis process that can first convert CO₂ and excessive electricity into methane and then synthesize single-cell protein. With an external voltage of 3.5 V and a CO₂ inflow rate of 50 mL·d⁻¹, it was possible to produce methanotrophic biomass of 118.7 ± 9.2 mg·L⁻¹ with an amino acids mass content of 54.6% ± 8.3%, resulting in nitrogen assimilation and CO₂ conversion efficiency of 91.0% ± 1.3% and 71.0%. The applied voltages, CO₂ inflow rates, and O₂ supply were found to affect the process significantly. This process using renewable feedstocks was proved independent of conventional agriculture for protein production.

Original language	English
Journal	One Earth
Volume	4
Issue number	6
Pages (from-to)	868-878
ISSN	2590-3330
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007
Publication status	Published - 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF16OC0021568, Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships (CF18-0084, Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto M?nsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance. M.X. and Y.Z. contributed to the conceptualization. M.X. and H.Z. designed the methodology and conducted the experiments. M.X. R.Z. X.Y. and S.Y. contributed to the resources and the visualization. Y.Z. and I.A. contributed to funding acquisition. M.X. wrote the original manuscript. Y.Z, I.A. and S.Y. commented on or edited the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests.

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation ( NNF16OC0021568 , Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships ( CF18-0084 , Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto Mønsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

aerobic methane oxidation
aerobic methanotrophs
carbon capture and utilization
electromethanogensis
hydrogenotrophic methanogens
microbial electrosynthesis
power to protein
renewable electricity
single-cell protein

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10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007

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Cite this

@article{1c3f620d940a4f91b44cf3a10a23cc6f,

title = "Beyond the farm: making edible protein from CO2 via hybrid bioinorganic electrosynthesis",

abstract = "Climate change and food shortage are two of the defining challenges in the coming decades. Considering that conventional approaches for protein production may associate with negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, alternative protein sources that rely on inexhaustible substrates/energy should be pursued. In this proof-of-concept study, we propose a two-stage bioinorganic electrosynthesis process that can first convert CO2 and excessive electricity into methane and then synthesize single-cell protein. With an external voltage of 3.5 V and a CO2 inflow rate of 50 mL·d−1, it was possible to produce methanotrophic biomass of 118.7 ± 9.2 mg·L−1 with an amino acids mass content of 54.6\% ± 8.3\%, resulting in nitrogen assimilation and CO2 conversion efficiency of 91.0\% ± 1.3\% and 71.0\%. The applied voltages, CO2 inflow rates, and O2 supply were found to affect the process significantly. This process using renewable feedstocks was proved independent of conventional agriculture for protein production.",

keywords = "aerobic methane oxidation, aerobic methanotrophs, carbon capture and utilization, electromethanogensis, hydrogenotrophic methanogens, microbial electrosynthesis, power to protein, renewable electricity, single-cell protein",

author = "Mingyi Xu and Huihui Zhou and Rusen Zou and Xiaoyong Yang and Yanyan Su and Irini Angelidaki and Yifeng Zhang",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF16OC0021568, Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships (CF18-0084, Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto M?nsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance. M.X. and Y.Z. contributed to the conceptualization. M.X. and H.Z. designed the methodology and conducted the experiments. M.X. R.Z. X.Y. and S.Y. contributed to the resources and the visualization. Y.Z. and I.A. contributed to funding acquisition. M.X. wrote the original manuscript. Y.Z, I.A. and S.Y. commented on or edited the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation ( NNF16OC0021568 , Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships ( CF18-0084 , Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto M{\o}nsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier Inc.",

year = "2021",

doi = "10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007",

language = "English",

volume = "4",

pages = "868--878",

journal = "One Earth",

issn = "2590-3330",

publisher = "Cell Press",

number = "6",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Beyond the farm: making edible protein from CO2 via hybrid bioinorganic electrosynthesis

AU - Xu, Mingyi

AU - Zhou, Huihui

AU - Zou, Rusen

AU - Yang, Xiaoyong

AU - Su, Yanyan

AU - Angelidaki, Irini

AU - Zhang, Yifeng

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF16OC0021568, Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships (CF18-0084, Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto M?nsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance. M.X. and Y.Z. contributed to the conceptualization. M.X. and H.Z. designed the methodology and conducted the experiments. M.X. R.Z. X.Y. and S.Y. contributed to the resources and the visualization. Y.Z. and I.A. contributed to funding acquisition. M.X. wrote the original manuscript. Y.Z, I.A. and S.Y. commented on or edited the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests. Funding Information: This work was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation ( NNF16OC0021568 , Denmark) and the Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships ( CF18-0084 , Denmark). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council (China) and the Otto Mønsted Fond (Denmark). The authors would like to thank Hector Gracia, Sinh Hy Nguyen, Mikael Emil Olsson, and Dan Zhao for the experimental assistance. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Climate change and food shortage are two of the defining challenges in the coming decades. Considering that conventional approaches for protein production may associate with negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, alternative protein sources that rely on inexhaustible substrates/energy should be pursued. In this proof-of-concept study, we propose a two-stage bioinorganic electrosynthesis process that can first convert CO2 and excessive electricity into methane and then synthesize single-cell protein. With an external voltage of 3.5 V and a CO2 inflow rate of 50 mL·d−1, it was possible to produce methanotrophic biomass of 118.7 ± 9.2 mg·L−1 with an amino acids mass content of 54.6% ± 8.3%, resulting in nitrogen assimilation and CO2 conversion efficiency of 91.0% ± 1.3% and 71.0%. The applied voltages, CO2 inflow rates, and O2 supply were found to affect the process significantly. This process using renewable feedstocks was proved independent of conventional agriculture for protein production.

AB - Climate change and food shortage are two of the defining challenges in the coming decades. Considering that conventional approaches for protein production may associate with negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, alternative protein sources that rely on inexhaustible substrates/energy should be pursued. In this proof-of-concept study, we propose a two-stage bioinorganic electrosynthesis process that can first convert CO2 and excessive electricity into methane and then synthesize single-cell protein. With an external voltage of 3.5 V and a CO2 inflow rate of 50 mL·d−1, it was possible to produce methanotrophic biomass of 118.7 ± 9.2 mg·L−1 with an amino acids mass content of 54.6% ± 8.3%, resulting in nitrogen assimilation and CO2 conversion efficiency of 91.0% ± 1.3% and 71.0%. The applied voltages, CO2 inflow rates, and O2 supply were found to affect the process significantly. This process using renewable feedstocks was proved independent of conventional agriculture for protein production.

KW - aerobic methane oxidation

KW - aerobic methanotrophs

KW - carbon capture and utilization

KW - electromethanogensis

KW - hydrogenotrophic methanogens

KW - microbial electrosynthesis

KW - power to protein

KW - renewable electricity

KW - single-cell protein

U2 - 10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007

DO - 10.1016/j.oneear.2021.05.007

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85107903735

SN - 2590-3330

VL - 4

SP - 868

EP - 878

JO - One Earth

JF - One Earth

IS - 6

ER -