Producing protein from air and electricity
Solar foods uses carbon dioxide, electricity and water to produce protein and does not rely on agriculture, weather or climate. It is a low cost and efficient process that can be carried out anywhere using solar energy. The concept was generated from the desire to create food in a more environmentally-friendly way, avoiding the use of land.
More research and development must be done before it can reach its full potential of being used on future Mars missions where a several month journey will require the production of food during flights and upon arrival. While Solar Foods aims to fulfill needs of food production in space conditions, they also plan to have a commercial protein production on Earth in 2021. The intention of this is to reduce the environmental impact of high quality protein by 10-100 times that of what meat production currently makes.
“The method is able to produce sustainable and pure single-cell protein from CO2 using electricity, requiring only carbon dioxide, water and electricity, combined with a small amount of trace elements.”
ESA
Source: ESA. (2018, November 28). Solar Foods: Produces protein from air and electricity – at SLUSH. Retrieved September 28, 2020, from https://www.esa.int/Applications/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Techno logy_Transfer/Solar_Foods_produces_protein_from_air_and_electricity_-_at_SLUSH