One method not mentioned is the usage of bio-processing to produce proteins identical to those coming from animal products using only genetically modified microbes.
The advantage here is that you're getting as close to the real thing as you can.. Actually there's no difference from the real thing at the protein level- though fats and things need to be added back from imitation sources to re-assemble to thing you're imitating.
This probably isn't overall cheaper today (vs soy, wheat, etc), but the processes is very inefficient and has a TON of room to be improved upon. At a large scale your inputs are glucose and some microbes. Fermentation does the rest.
It just so happens that's what we're working on at at Culture Biosciences. Shoot me an email if this kind of stuff fascinates you. We're hiring software and hardware engineers. satshabad@culturebiosciences.com
For the large-scale tonnage using bioscience to create protein is incredibly capital, energy and water-intensive.
If you could do it anaerobically, that would help on the energy front, but there's big limit on volumetric efficiency (cell density/tankturn) of anaerobic.
For aerobics, maintaining lab-scale OTRs in 200m and larger reactors is very very power-intensive. kLa is a power-law relationship with power-input
The advantage here is that you're getting as close to the real thing as you can.. Actually there's no difference from the real thing at the protein level- though fats and things need to be added back from imitation sources to re-assemble to thing you're imitating.
This probably isn't overall cheaper today (vs soy, wheat, etc), but the processes is very inefficient and has a TON of room to be improved upon. At a large scale your inputs are glucose and some microbes. Fermentation does the rest.
It just so happens that's what we're working on at at Culture Biosciences. Shoot me an email if this kind of stuff fascinates you. We're hiring software and hardware engineers. satshabad@culturebiosciences.com