Powered by renewable energy, microbes turn CO2 into potentially edible protein and vitamins. Researchers have harvested protein and vitamin B9 from microbes by feeding them nothing much more than hydrogen, oxygen, and CO2. The protein levels exceed those of beef, pork, fish, and lentils.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(24)00177-X

From the linked article:

German researchers have harvested protein and vitamin B9 from microbes by feeding them nothing much more than hydrogen, oxygen, and CO2. The technology could help reduce carbon emissions from food production as it runs on renewable energy to produce a sustainable, nutrient-rich protein alternative that may one day make it to our plates, they say. The team designed a two-stage system that produces yeast rich in protein and vitamin B9, also known as folate and essential for bodily functions. In the first stage, the bacterium Thermoanaerobacter kivui converts hydrogen and CO2 into acetate, which is found in vinegar. In the second stage, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, more commonly known as baker’s yeast, feeds on acetate and oxygen to make protein and vitamin B9. The hydrogen and oxygen can be produced by zapping water with electricity produced by clean energy sources such as windmills, the researchers say. The protein levels in their yeast exceed those of beef, pork, fish, and lentils, while less than half a teaspoon meets our daily vitamin B9 requirements. Next, they plan to optimise and scale up production, investigate food safety, conduct technical and economic analyses, and gauge market interest.

Hydrogen, oxygen, and growth medium.

They did legit good work removing the need for specific vitamin supplementation but it doesn’t magically grow food from CO2 and water, which is impossible anyway as that lacks many of the elements needed to produce food.

If there is a naming contest, I vote to call it “Soylent Green”