Proving that nothing is impossible, researchers in Finland have successfully made food from electricity. Yes, you read that absolutely right. The discovery, which is being helmed as the future of food, saw Finnish researchers producing a single-cell protein using a system powered by renewable energy.
The synthetic food, which is nutritious enough to be served for dinner, was made as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The entire food production process required only water, microbes, carbon dioxide and the most important ingredient, electricity.
[caption id="attachment_119344" align="alignnone" width="700"]
Image Credit: Laurie Nygren
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The process entailed exposing the aforementioned raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, which lead to formation of a powder that consists of more than 50 per cent protein and 25 per cent carbohydrates. According to the researchers, the texture of the powder can also be changed by doing some alterations in the microbes being used in the production process.
Talking about the discovery to futurism.com, Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, principal scientist at VTT revealed that the next step in their research is to optimise the entire system as currently a bioreactor of a size of a coffee cup is capable of producing just one gram of the protein and that too takes around two weeks time.
“We are currently focusing on developing the technology: reactor concepts, technology, improving efficiency, and controlling the process," said Pitkänen said in a LUT press release.
While Pitkänen is happy about the progress that they have achieved, he still believes that it could still take at least ten years before a more efficient incarnation of the system could be made widely available.
If the food from electricity project does become a success, it could not only help in feeding the large number of starving people in the world but also prove as a great source of food in areas that are not suited for agricultural production. It could also substantially decrease the amount of unsustainable farming that is being done currently to survive the mankind as it will provide them a smaller, cheaper, and renewable method of getting nutrients.
Prior to this, Paramhamsa Tiwari, an electrical engineer, made a device called RLG: Reactionless AC synchronous Generator that can generate electricity from empty space or vacuum (Read Here).
If the above two researches combine, then the world could soon have unlimited access to food and that too without exhausting existing resources. It could also mean an end to world hunger once for all.
Image: My Modern Met
The synthetic food, which is nutritious enough to be served for dinner, was made as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The entire food production process required only water, microbes, carbon dioxide and the most important ingredient, electricity.
[caption id="attachment_119344" align="alignnone" width="700"]
Image Credit: Laurie Nygren[/caption]
The process entailed exposing the aforementioned raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, which lead to formation of a powder that consists of more than 50 per cent protein and 25 per cent carbohydrates. According to the researchers, the texture of the powder can also be changed by doing some alterations in the microbes being used in the production process.
Talking about the discovery to futurism.com, Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, principal scientist at VTT revealed that the next step in their research is to optimise the entire system as currently a bioreactor of a size of a coffee cup is capable of producing just one gram of the protein and that too takes around two weeks time.
“We are currently focusing on developing the technology: reactor concepts, technology, improving efficiency, and controlling the process," said Pitkänen said in a LUT press release.
While Pitkänen is happy about the progress that they have achieved, he still believes that it could still take at least ten years before a more efficient incarnation of the system could be made widely available.
If the food from electricity project does become a success, it could not only help in feeding the large number of starving people in the world but also prove as a great source of food in areas that are not suited for agricultural production. It could also substantially decrease the amount of unsustainable farming that is being done currently to survive the mankind as it will provide them a smaller, cheaper, and renewable method of getting nutrients.
Prior to this, Paramhamsa Tiwari, an electrical engineer, made a device called RLG: Reactionless AC synchronous Generator that can generate electricity from empty space or vacuum (Read Here).
If the above two researches combine, then the world could soon have unlimited access to food and that too without exhausting existing resources. It could also mean an end to world hunger once for all.
Image: My Modern Met
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