Methane Single Cell Protein: Potential to Secure a Global Protein Supply Against Catastrophic Food Shocks

Martínez, Juan B. García; Pearce, Joshua M.; Throup, James; Cates, Jacob; Lackner, Maximilian; Denkenberger, David

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.906704

Cited by 31 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…García Martínez et al, 2022Martínez et al, , 2021 was selected for being the current higher TRL example of MP production. It consists rst in a hollow-ber ultra ltration system to concentrate the broth with reduced energy requirements.…”

Section: Microbial Proteins Production From Residual-based Gases: For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Waste reintroduced in the kitchen: life cycles inventories of representative waste-to-nutrition pathways

Javourez,

Tituta-Barna,

Hamelin

2024

Preprint

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Waste recovery technologies targeting the formulation of edible ingredients such as insects, microorganisms, or proteins extracts, are increasingly promoted to mitigate global environmental impacts. Yet, many conversion pathways exist, and little is known about the plausibility, the implications, and the environmental relevance of deploying them: a comparative modeling approach is missing. To this end, we reviewed the available data and literature documenting these emerging biorefineries and compiled it into six harmonized life cycle inventory (LCI) models estimating the forecasted performances of 16 representative “waste-to-nutrition” pathways in function of 18 input stream characteristics and 293 technological parameters. Illustrated on eleven case studies, the results quantify the untapped potential of transforming waste into novel food and feed and unravel the intrinsic trade-offs between their energy intensity, their yield and the biochemical composition of input streams. We show that several scenarios are possible to achieve France’s protein feed autonomy by scaling and combining different waste-to-nutrition pathways, but that each scenario would lead to different consequences on energy systems and on bioresources’ mobilization requirements. As provided, the LCI models capture the implications associated with these waste recovery technologies and are ready to support their prospective life cycle assessment.

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Section: Microbial Proteins Production From Residual-based Gases: For...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Waste reintroduced in the kitchen: life cycles inventories of representative waste-to-nutrition pathways

Javourez,

Tituta-Barna,

Hamelin

2024

Preprint

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“…Research has described a range of resilient foods (Tzachor et al., 2021; Winstead & Jacobson, 2022), especially for abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios (Denkenberger & Pearce, 2015; Denkenberger et al., 2019). Resilient food solutions include leaf protein concentrate (J. M. Pearce et al., 2019), greenhouse crop production (Alvarado et al., 2020), single cell protein from natural gas (García Martínez, Pearce, et al., 2022) and hydrogen (García Martínez et al., 2021), sugar from lignocellulosic biomass (Throup et al., 2022), synthetic fat from petroleum (García Martínez, Alvarado, & Denkenberger, 2022), and wild edible plants (Winstead & Jacobson, 2022). One modeling study concluded that these resilient foods could provide enough calories to avoid anyone starving after the nuclear war scenario (Rivers et al., 2022).…”

Section: Why Seaweed?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seaweed as a Resilient Food Solution After a Nuclear War

Jehn,

Dingal,

Mill

et al. 2024

Earth's Future

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Abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios such as a nuclear winter caused by the burning of cities in a nuclear war, an asteroid/comet impact or an eruption of a large volcano inject large amounts of particles in the atmosphere, which limit sunlight. This could decimate agriculture as it is practiced today. We therefore need resilient food sources for such an event. One promising candidate is seaweed, as it can grow quickly in a wide range of environmental conditions. To explore the feasibility of seaweed after nuclear war, we simulate the growth of seaweed on a global scale using an empirical model based on Gracilaria tikvahiae forced by nuclear winter climate simulations. We assess how quickly global seaweed production could be scaled to provide a significant fraction of global food demand. We find seaweed can be grown in tropical oceans, even after nuclear war. The simulated growth is high enough to allow a scale up to an equivalent of 45% of the global human food demand (spread among food, animal feed, and biofuels) in around 9–14 months, while only using a small fraction of the global ocean area. The main limiting factor being the speed at which new seaweed farms can be built. The results also show that the growth of seaweed increases with the severity of the nuclear war, as more nutrients become available due to increased vertical mixing. This means that seaweed has the potential to be a viable resilient food source for abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios.

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“…It was estimated that a 1 m 3 unit will require 0.7 kg cell biomass and can enable methane mitigation at the rate 6 kg CH 4 /d. Considering that methanotrophic cell biomass can be produced at the cost $1.7-5/kg [19,20], the system may offer an attractive mitigation platform and, thus, it was investigated further.…”

Section: Mathematical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Living emission abolish filters (LEAFs) for methane mitigation: design and operation

Hamilton,

Griffith,

Salamon

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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As one of the most potent greenhouse gases, methane is a critical target for the near-term mitigation of global warming. Efficient, scalable, easy-to-implement, and robust mitigation technologies are urgently needed to assist in reaching methane abolishment. The goal of this research was to test the applicability of active, extremophilic methanotrophic cells as a baseline concept for engineered systems aiming at methane capturing. The system, named Living Emission Abolish Filters (LEAFs), represents an array of immobilized biomaterials capable of capturing methane directly from vent streams. The biomaterials were made using cells of Methylotuvimicrobium alcaliphilum 20ZR, a robust halophilic methanotrophic bacterium with the ability to consume methane gas at low concentrations. Several critical parameters were tested, including (i) the composition of the matrix and optimal immobilization to increase catalyst load, (ii) the stability of methanotrophic cells, and (iii) the toxicity of trace gases (i.e., CO). We found that hydrogels coated with 2.3 mg cell dry weight/cm3 methanotrophic cells represent the best-performing biomaterials. The methane reduction potential of LEAFs fluctuated from 20% to 95% and depended on the methane concentration in the gas stream and the stream flow rates. The potential for commercial-scale deployment and emissions reductions was also evaluated. Total greenhouse gas emissions (combined using the global warming potential GWP100) from an example using a ventilation air methane source over a one-year period was shown to be reduced in two LEAF scenarios by 51% and 75%. Over longer time horizons, more significant reductions are possible as consistent methane consumption can be sustained. The study highlights the overall potential of the liquid-free bio-based composite methane mitigation system. Further improvements essential for system assembly and implementations should include (a) optimization of the cell immobilization protocols to improve cell load and the shelf-life of the system and (b) implementation of matrix moldings for cell immobilization to achieve optimal gas flow and increase the cell-gas interface.

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Methane Single Cell Protein: Potential to Secure a Global Protein Supply Against Catastrophic Food Shocks

Cited by 31 publications

References 82 publications

Waste reintroduced in the kitchen: life cycles inventories of representative waste-to-nutrition pathways

Waste reintroduced in the kitchen: life cycles inventories of representative waste-to-nutrition pathways

Seaweed as a Resilient Food Solution After a Nuclear War

Living emission abolish filters (LEAFs) for methane mitigation: design and operation

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