Good guys, the Chinese team is so rebellious that they can turn coal into protein!
Once this technology is rolled out, it is expected that it will completely change the rules of the game in food production.
China invents coal-to-protein technology
At present, most of the protein we humans eat comes from modern agriculture and animal husbandry, such as some domestic animals such as pigs, cattle and sheep, and poultry such as chickens, ducks and geese.
But to feed them, it is first necessary to convert a huge area of land into farmland and pasture, which will undoubtedly have a certain impact on the natural environment.
In order to ensure food security, China has always had a red line of 1.8 billion mu of cultivated land, that is, the lowest value of the land area that is often cultivated.
However, the results of relevant surveys show that only 45% of China's existing cultivated land has irrigation conditions, and the unstable use of cultivated land is as high as more than 70 million mu, and the land damaged by natural disasters and human activities is as high as tens of thousands of mu every year.
For this reason, China needs to import a large number of crops from abroad every year.
For example, China is the world's largest importer, consumer and processor of soybeans, and its position and influence in the global soybean market are very important.
In 2020, soybean imports exceeded 100 million tons for the first time. Industry experts said that with 100 million tons of imports, it will take 76.1 billion mu, accounting for 43 percent of the total grain sowing area that year30%。
According to public data, U.S. agricultural exports to China reached a record $40.9 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 145%, China is once again the largest market for U.S. agricultural exports.
Among them, soybean exports totaled $17.9 billion.
On the one hand, due to environmental considerations, and on the other hand, it is also due to concerns about imports, so Chinese scientists are thinking, is there a simpler, more efficient and low-cost way to synthesize proteins?
The traditional production process of synthetic proteins often relies on microbial fermentation.
This involves selecting a specific strain of microorganisms (such as bacteria, yeast, or algae) and providing a source of nutrients (usually sugars) in a controlled environment to grow and produce proteins.
Subsequently, these proteins are collected, purified, and potentially further processed into various food products.
However, the cost of production is still a hard hit, so large-scale commercial production still faces economic challenges.
And now there is good news that the 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, and used technical means to produce protein from it.
So, how do they do it?
Researchers have found that from the coal gasification process, a substance called methanol can be extracted.
Although this thing is harmful to the environment and the human body, it can be turned into protein through specific biotechnology.
However, the key to the success of this technology lies in two aspects.
First, strains of yeast that can be grown using methanol as a carbon source are screened from nature, which requires extensive field sampling and laboratory screening to ensure that the most suitable strains are found.
To do this, the researchers collected more than 20,000 yeast samples from the natural environment across China and through a series of tests, finally determined that a yeast called Pichia pastoris was a good fit.
They then genetically engineered selected yeasts to improve their utilization of methanol while enhancing their ability to withstand high temperatures.
This allows the yeast to grow at higher temperatures, which in turn improves protein yield and quality.
It is said that the genetically modified Pichia pastoris is said to be fermenting at an unprecedented level in methanol.
The researchers reported that they were able to obtain 120 grams of stem cell weight and 67With a crude protein content of 2%, this means that the efficiency of methanol conversion to protein is up to 92% of the theoretical value, which is much higher than that of traditional biomass conversion processes.
The successful implementation of this technology not only improves the efficiency of methanol-to-protein conversion, but also produces protein with high nutritional value, making it an ideal food and feed additive with a wide range of application prospects.
Let's just say that traditional protein sources such as fishmeal, soy, meat and skimmed milk powder can be replaced by this protein.
Of course, the success of the technology is not limited to the laboratory stage, and the team is said to have begun to pilot industrial production, marking a major shift from theory to practice.
This move not only provides a new solution to the global protein** problem, but also demonstrates the great potential of using modern biotechnology and genetic engineering to solve environmental and resource problems.
Ending
I have to say that converting the methanol produced in the process of coal gasification into the best value of protein is really a brain-opening design.
If this is the case, it must be a feat for the benefit of all mankind. In terms of intelligence, it is still Chinese scientists who are powerful.
I just don't know, how does this protein taste when you eat it?