
Finland producing food protein from CO2, water, and electricity - brylie
https://solarfoods.fi/
======
throwawayspace
Posting this as a top level comment as well, found a bit more info after a
cursory search, make of it what you will.

> The company first uses electricity to split water and obtain hydrogen, which
> is then mixed with carbon dioxide and fertilizers such as phosphorus and
> ammonia. These are then fed to an undisclosed type of soil-derived bacteria,
> and through a fermentation process, Solar Foods ends up with a powder made
> of 50% protein, 25% carbohydrates, 10% fat, and 15% other nutrients.

[https://labiotech.eu/biotech-of-the-week/solar-foods-
space-m...](https://labiotech.eu/biotech-of-the-week/solar-foods-space-
mission-finland/)

[https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integr...](https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/TTP2/Food_out_of_the_thin_air)

~~~
ksec
> 50% protein, 25% carbohydrates, 10% fat, and 15% other nutrients.

I think it is important to know what sort of Protein, Carbs, Fat and
Nutrients.

But looking at those numbers, are we going to see people in the future living
on Soylent that is 10x cheaper than its price today?

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zadkey
You need Nitrogen for the amine(-NH2) part of amino acids to build proteins.
Co2, water, and electricity does not include Nitrogen.

I assume the left out the part where they take Nitrogen from the air as part
of the fermentation process.

------
bnegreve
> _Food out of thin air._

Plants also produce food from CO2 + Water + solar energy. How does it compare
to plants?

~~~
abdullahkhalids
They claim 250x improvement in water usage and 10x in land usage over soy.
This is not surprising at all. Once your throw away all excess parts of plants
necessary for reproduction and survival against the harshness of the
environment etc, you will have huge efficiency gains.

[https://solarfoods.fi/environmental-
impact/](https://solarfoods.fi/environmental-impact/)

------
neetdeth
My first question was how this compares to Quorn[1], a product already on the
market from Marlow Foods in the UK. It's also a single cell protein and I
personally think their chicken-like products are quite good.

Google lead me to a previous discussion on HN [2]. Apparently the distinction
is that this doesn't require carbohydrate feedstock [3], i.e. no dependence on
conventional agriculture. Which is big if true.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn)

2\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18344636)

3\.
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electr...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/electric-
food-sci-fi-diet-planet-food-animals-environment)

------
rubber_duck
Can't find the details on mobile - is there a list of amimoacids and the
ratios produced by the process ?

~~~
abdullahkhalids
Best I could find [1]

> In its dry powered format, Vainikka compared Solein’s nutritional profile to
> that of soy, algae, or some animal-based proteins. It contains 50% protein
> with all the essential amino acids, 5-10% fat, 20-25% carbohydrates, as well
> as Vitamin B.

I am more concerned about the health implication of such foods. I don't think
it's enough to say an artificially produced food does not contain any harmful
substances. The specific ratios of micronutrients and amino acids and such
have unknown impacts on our health, so, this is as scary as it is exciting.

[1] [https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/07/15/Solar-
Foods...](https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2019/07/15/Solar-Foods-makes-
protein-out-of-thin-air-This-is-the-most-environmentally-friendly-food-there-
is)

~~~
moby_click
We also cannot digest all the proteins out there, but this reads very
promising. If there are no harmful substances to begin with, it can probably
be used in further processing by yeasts or microalgae to obtain a wider range
of nutrients.

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sol_invictus
"Finland producing..." funny choice of words here.

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corodra
Really sparse on details. Any chemists able to throw their two cents? Maybe
which NASA program they might be talking about? This feels like a perpetual
energy gimmick.

~~~
throwawayspace
Not much additional info here, but I've managed to find this:
[https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integr...](https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/TTP2/Food_out_of_the_thin_air)

------
knolax
What's the benefit of this over growing high-protein plants like lentils with
grow-lamps? Presumably CO2, water, and electricity are also the only resources
consumed for the latter. Is is a difference in efficiency?

Also, how do they account for the need for trace elements that I assume even a
single celled organism would need. For example, where does it get selenium and
sulfur?

~~~
olliej
They have land and water use comparisons that are obviously favorable (not
obvious because it's obviously a perfect invention, but obvious because it
would be bad marketing to show _worse_ performance)

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FrojoS
Interesting. Are these complete proteins? As in, do they contain all essential
and non-essential amino acids?

