Landfill gas meals are now in the pipeline
Scientists to cook food from waste using methane turned into edible protein
Imagine a world where gas emitted from landfills can be turned into edible protein that ends up on your plate as a burger or a steak.
That’s what scientists are hoping for. Calysta Inc. in California and String Bio in the Indian city of Bengaluru are among biotechnology firms that have separately discovered ways to turn methane into protein. Bacteria found in soil are fed a liquid containing the gas, sparking a fermentation process similar to making beer. Instead of alcohol, protein is released into the water, which is then dried into a brown powder. The product is already being used in animal feed, the first step towards readying it for human consumption.
The companies are betting their products will help alleviate the strain of a growing global population on agricultural land and oceans while natural gas prices trade near the lowest level in almost two decades. String Bio, a start-up, which won $200,000 (Dh734,642) in Indian government grants, and Calysta, backed by investors including Japan’s Mitsui & Co and Cargill Inc, hope methanemade protein will become a sustainable food of the future.
“It’s way better to turn methane into food than burn it,” said Calysta’s chief executive officer, Alan Shaw, a Menlo Park-based chemist who led efforts to turn crop waste into fuels at his previous firm. “What better use for it than to turn it into protein and put it into the human food system?”
Landfills, sewage plants and farms all naturally produce methane when organic matter decomposes, which can be captured and transported to a facility, said Ezhil Subbian, the co-founder of String Bio in Bengaluru.
Funding issues
Shaw says the amount of methane from such sources is too small to feed a large plant economically at the moment but Calysta is working on “scaling down” its technology. Subbian is optimistic that String Bio will be able to build plants using biogas methane in the next five years.
For now, Calysta will use natural gas from a pipeline at its $500 million Memphis, Tennessee, facility instead of biogas.