Today I was stunned by the news, a team of scientists in China invented the technology of turning coal into protein, yes, you heard it right, no sunlight does not occupy arable land, directly turns black coal into delicious protein, the efficiency is thousands of times higher than traditional farming methods, is this going to completely subvert the rules of the game for food production?
Delicious steaks, delicious fried chicken, and smoky pork belly on a griddle, where do these proteins that stir our taste buds and nourish our lives come from?You can easily answer that modern agriculture and animal husbandry work together to produce corn, soybeans and other crops as feed with a large amount of land, feed domestic animals such as pigs, cattle and sheep and poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese, and provide us with high-protein nutrients such as meat, eggs and milk.
Among them, feed production needs to occupy a lot of land, which not only destroys the natural environment, but also depends on God's face. Especially in China, arable land resources are extremely limited, and a large number of crops need to be imported every year for feed, including 100 million tons of soybeans alone, and the dependence is as high as 80%. The rapid growth of the global population has also led to the continuous encroachment of humans on forests and grasslands, demanding more protein from land and sea, leading to the continuous destruction and fragmentation of animal and plant habitats, and the rate of extinction of life, which may exceed the average of the earth's history by more than 100 times.
If these primary proteins can be synthesized in a simple, efficient and low-cost way, will it be possible to reduce the cost of higher proteins and increase the production of meat and eggs, so as to meet the needs of people's lives without destroying the natural environment and endangering the diversity of wildlife?
A team led by Professor Wu Xin of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has set its sights on coal. This guy has more than 1 trillion tons of global reserves, which is abundant and cheap, and in the future when new energy is developed, there is no use for generating electricity without it, and it would be great if it could be used to make biological proteins.
At present, there are many ways to synthesize biological proteins, and the simplest one may be for many of us, that is, to use microorganisms to convert carbon sources such as corn syrup, distiller's grains and straw into more valuable proteins through fermentation, which has been widely used in the aquaculture industry.
Since carbon-containing materials such as straw can synthesize proteins, can coal, which also contains carbon, also synthesize proteins?Professor Wu's team has a brainstorm, they use methanol converted from coal gasification to produce protein through fermentation, and they have achieved extremely remarkable results, and have begun large-scale pilots.
To put it simply, the researchers collected more than 20,000 yeast samples from vineyards, forests, and marshes across China to find strains that could effectively use a variety of sugars and alcohols as carbon sources, and finally screened out a strain called Pichia pastoris (Ppastoris ), which can swim and thrive in methanol. However, due to the toxicity of methanol and the complex metabolic pathway, about 20% of yeast will die before fermentation, which often makes scientists lose their wallets and directly turn into water and carbon dioxide, resulting in a double loss of protein synthesis efficiency and cost.
Of course, scientists have used genetic technology to knock out specific genes of Pichia pastoris, and designed a high-efficiency, high-temperature resistant Pichia pasteuris, which greatly promotes the directional conversion of methanol to protein.
The results were astonishing, they were able to obtain 120 grams of stem cell weight and 67With a crude protein content of 2%, the efficiency of methanol conversion into protein reaches an astonishing theoretical value of 92%, and the protein content reaches a maximum of 85%, which is significantly higher than that of natural plants. They also contain complete amino acids, vitamins, inorganic salts, fats and carbohydrates, and are free of the allergens found in soy protein, making them a partial replacement for fishmeal, soy, meat and skimmed milk powder in a variety of applications.
How?Isn't it perfect?The bottom line is that this method doesn't take up arable land, is not affected by the seasons and climate, and can turn coal into a highly efficient protein that is 1,000 times more efficient than traditional farming methods, which is really a bit unbelievable. The high conversion rate of this genetically modified yeast is also very attractive economically, and the research team has already partnered with a company to start a pilot of industrial-scale production of 10,000 tons.
Researchers are also constantly improving the technology to further improve the physiological function and nutritional value of methanol protein, expand the derivative market and continuously reduce costs. Maybe one day, we can directly enjoy all kinds of proteins synthesized from coal, including steak, chicken thighs, bacon, and pork belly
The research was published in Microbial Cell Factory and Biofuels and Bioproduct Technology.