Atheistforums.com

Science Section => Science General Discussion => Biology, Psychology & Medicine => Topic started by: Unbeliever on July 22, 2019, 01:22:13 PM

Title: Food from Air
Post by: Unbeliever on July 22, 2019, 01:22:13 PM


QuoteSolar Foods, a Finnish company, will electrolyze water to produce hydrogen that is used, along with carbon dioxide and small amounts of trace elements, to feed microbes.


QuoteResearchers in Finland have made food from electricity and carbon dioxide captured from the air.

The study is part of the joint Neo-Carbon Energy research project by scientists at Lappeenranta University of Technology and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The food-creating system uses a bioreactor, which contains water, microbes and nutrients such as nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus.

The electric current triggers electrolysis of the water and with carbon dioxide captured from the air, the end result of the chemical reaction produces a powdery edible compound.

The compound contains more than 50 percent protein, 25 percent carbohydrates and the rest is fats and nucleic acids.

“In practice, all the raw materials are available from the air,” Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Principal Scientist at VTT said in a press release.

“In the future, the technology can be transported to, for instance, deserts and other areas facing famine. One possible alternative is a home reactor, a type of domestic appliance that the consumer can use to produce the needed protein.”

According to the UN, 795 million people are undernourished globally and another 2 billion people are expected to join them by 2050.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54-gh0pX7c0




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJB5MiFAfYo


Along with things like lab-grown meat, this, or something like it, may well be the future of food. Hopefully it's at least better than eating bugs, which is also being touted as the up-and-coming food of the future.

Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Baruch on July 22, 2019, 11:14:20 PM
I suspect .. it will be very expensive (all change tends to maximize plutocracy).  But yes, better than Soylent Green.
Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Mr.Obvious on July 24, 2019, 02:37:50 AM
I've had bug burgers and bug balls.
Not that bad.
Not great.
But not bad.

Can't watch the vid right now. Does this seem promising?
Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Baruch on July 24, 2019, 03:08:07 AM
Quote from: Mr.Obvious on July 24, 2019, 02:37:50 AM
I've had bug burgers and bug balls.
Not that bad.
Not great.
But not bad.

Can't watch the vid right now. Does this seem promising?

We were served VTP back in HS ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein

So nothing new.  Assembling something from individual atoms, one at a time, can never be efficient.  Taking complex molecules and repurposing them is.
Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Cavebear on August 20, 2019, 11:45:39 AM
Quote from: Baruch on July 24, 2019, 03:08:07 AM
We were served VTP back in HS ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein

So nothing new.  Assembling something from individual atoms, one at a time, can never be efficient.  Taking complex molecules and repurposing them is.

In some sci-fi books that is just called CHON (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen).  Nice to see some people are actually trying it out though  But, as always, sci-fi writers got there first.
Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Baruch on August 20, 2019, 11:47:47 AM
Quote from: Cavebear on August 20, 2019, 11:45:39 AM
In some sci-fi books that is just called CHON (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen).  Nice to see some people are actually trying it out though  But, as always, sci-fi writers got there first.

Missing trace elements.  Phosphorus and sulfur in particular.
Title: Re: Food from Air
Post by: Cavebear on August 20, 2019, 12:16:39 PM
Quote from: Baruch on August 20, 2019, 11:47:47 AM
Missing trace elements.  Phosphorus and sulfur in particular.

And God said "let there be vitamins"?  What cannot be created from CHON?