According to the amount of liters in a bioreactor needed to feed 6 astronauts. If we want to feed 8 billion people we will need a sum of >54 million liters distributed in bioreactors. This is equivalent to >21,400 Olympic pools. The largest bioreactors have a capacity of 250,000 liters, so 214,000 of these bioreactors will be needed. I don't know how much a bioreactor that size costs, but assuming they cost $1 million each, that's $214 billion in total. Doesn't seem like much to feed the world. I want to work with it. Would you finance my study?
I already have two studies on this topic. I estimated a few trillions of costs to produce protein requirements of the whole population. The titles are below, just search on google. I tried to put links but youtube doesn't allow. - Potential of microbial protein from hydrogen for preventing mass starvation in catastrophic scenarios - Methane Single Cell Protein: Potential to Secure a Global Protein Supply Against Catastrophic Food Shocks
A company called liberation labs is currently building a 600'000 litre facility in Richmond, Indiana. They literally laid the foundations last month. They hope to scale upto 4'000'000 litres.
$1million per reactor is excessive, given these would be mass produced. Far more significant is that fact that this is not using sunlight directly as the energy source, and it still needs other inputs. You need large solar farms to power them. Taking the 20% efficiency at face value would require an average power of 500W per person, which means around 2kW solar panel due to intermittency. You would struggle to get that for less than $1000 per person, so ~$8 trillion is probably the minimum cost for that side of things. You also have to factor in that this is using ammonia as an input (if it were fixing nitrogen I imagine they would specifically call it out, because that would be a big deal). It is more efficient than most other routes to food, but you are probably still talking an extra $200 per person per year ammonia production. Plants photosynthesise really inefficiently, but we are not nearly at the point where we are better off harvesting the energy ourselves and doing something like this.
'... And nutrients'. Can you be more specific about what that means? Does this process still depend on ammonia, or is nitrogen cracking integrated into the bioreactor? It is definitely more sustainable than any other technology I have seen, but if you are dependent on ammonia then you absolutely cannot say you are making protein from air. I love the tech. The issue I have is that I don't see the economics of it working. If the US alone were to divert grain from animal feed to feeding people we would have food for an extra 800 million people anyway. There is no demand for this because we are not even close to a food shortage. It is political and economic will that causes famines and prevents rewilding, not 'farming isn't efficient enough'. This is extremely important tech for space habitation, particularly if you can integrate nitrogen fixation (and if you have then that is pretty important to put in the marketing). In order for the elements to be balanced, it would need to be producing oxygen as a byproduct, so it would not just be a food production system, it would be producing all the bulk products astronauts need. It isn't going to change the earth though, because there already easier things we could do in that direction that we are not doing.
It is basically yogurt, but instead of the bacteria metabolising lactose they metabolise hydrogen produced from electrolysis (apparently there are bacteria that can just do that!). The bacteria also need proteins, fats, and other sugars, so when presented with precursors and energy, they make them. By limiting the amount of oxygen available breaking down sugars and proteins for energy is limited, so a large portion of the input energy is converted into useful food.
A product on a scale like this needs to be backed by people with actual money. This isn't some crowdfunding novelty thing. So, they field tested it in places where people with money go to eat. Give it time, and don't start moping right at the very beginning of the entire process. Something can only be mass produced once it has found its way into the people's minds, hearts, and stomachs. We're right at the start of something that might take a decade. patience noun [ U ] UK /ˈpeɪ.ʃəns/ US /ˈpeɪ.ʃəns/ patience noun [U] (QUALITY) The ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed.
Cool thing ❤
According to the amount of liters in a bioreactor needed to feed 6 astronauts. If we want to feed 8 billion people we will need a sum of >54 million liters distributed in bioreactors. This is equivalent to >21,400 Olympic pools. The largest bioreactors have a capacity of 250,000 liters, so 214,000 of these bioreactors will be needed. I don't know how much a bioreactor that size costs, but assuming they cost $1 million each, that's $214 billion in total. Doesn't seem like much to feed the world.
I want to work with it. Would you finance my study?
I already have two studies on this topic. I estimated a few trillions of costs to produce protein requirements of the whole population. The titles are below, just search on google. I tried to put links but youtube doesn't allow.
- Potential of microbial protein from hydrogen for preventing mass starvation in catastrophic scenarios
- Methane Single Cell Protein: Potential to Secure a Global Protein Supply Against Catastrophic Food Shocks
@@Juan_B._Garcia_Martinez
Wow!
Thank you. I'll check it out!
A company called liberation labs is currently building a 600'000 litre facility in Richmond, Indiana. They literally laid the foundations last month. They hope to scale upto 4'000'000 litres.
$1million per reactor is excessive, given these would be mass produced. Far more significant is that fact that this is not using sunlight directly as the energy source, and it still needs other inputs. You need large solar farms to power them. Taking the 20% efficiency at face value would require an average power of 500W per person, which means around 2kW solar panel due to intermittency. You would struggle to get that for less than $1000 per person, so ~$8 trillion is probably the minimum cost for that side of things.
You also have to factor in that this is using ammonia as an input (if it were fixing nitrogen I imagine they would specifically call it out, because that would be a big deal). It is more efficient than most other routes to food, but you are probably still talking an extra $200 per person per year ammonia production.
Plants photosynthesise really inefficiently, but we are not nearly at the point where we are better off harvesting the energy ourselves and doing something like this.
When can we buy? And are you doing murine health studies?
'... And nutrients'. Can you be more specific about what that means? Does this process still depend on ammonia, or is nitrogen cracking integrated into the bioreactor? It is definitely more sustainable than any other technology I have seen, but if you are dependent on ammonia then you absolutely cannot say you are making protein from air.
I love the tech. The issue I have is that I don't see the economics of it working. If the US alone were to divert grain from animal feed to feeding people we would have food for an extra 800 million people anyway. There is no demand for this because we are not even close to a food shortage. It is political and economic will that causes famines and prevents rewilding, not 'farming isn't efficient enough'.
This is extremely important tech for space habitation, particularly if you can integrate nitrogen fixation (and if you have then that is pretty important to put in the marketing). In order for the elements to be balanced, it would need to be producing oxygen as a byproduct, so it would not just be a food production system, it would be producing all the bulk products astronauts need. It isn't going to change the earth though, because there already easier things we could do in that direction that we are not doing.
how does it work?
It is basically yogurt, but instead of the bacteria metabolising lactose they metabolise hydrogen produced from electrolysis (apparently there are bacteria that can just do that!). The bacteria also need proteins, fats, and other sugars, so when presented with precursors and energy, they make them. By limiting the amount of oxygen available breaking down sugars and proteins for energy is limited, so a large portion of the input energy is converted into useful food.
Thats all nice but once again: We need this in masses and not just for some fancy star restaurants.
A product on a scale like this needs to be backed by people with actual money. This isn't some crowdfunding novelty thing. So, they field tested it in places where people with money go to eat. Give it time, and don't start moping right at the very beginning of the entire process. Something can only be mass produced once it has found its way into the people's minds, hearts, and stomachs. We're right at the start of something that might take a decade.
patience
noun [ U ]
UK /ˈpeɪ.ʃəns/ US /ˈpeɪ.ʃəns/
patience noun [U] (QUALITY)
The ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed.