Taking this news with a grain of salt, with obvious reasons.
Because starchy foods are delicious with a bit of salt?
Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
21–30 of 52 posts
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#22If this is true, it spells the end of traditional farming practices and an end to starvation.
That depends on how much energy is required. It does mean that settlements in places like the Yukon and Northern Alaska are now much more interesting.
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#23If this is true, it spells the end of traditional farming practices and an end to starvation.
That depends on how much energy is required. It does mean that settlements in places like the Yukon and Northern Alaska are now much more interesting.
Pack the far north with SMRs, use the electricity to power CO2 capture farms and make starch, and the waste heat can heat homes. Northern Alberta never looked so good.
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#24If this is true, it spells the end of traditional farming practices and an end to starvation.
That depends on how much energy is required. It does mean that settlements in places like the Yukon and Northern Alaska are now much more interesting.
I think energy is going to get a lot cheaper in the coming years. Especially at times when renewables are overproducing.
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool though the development in the article is, everything I hear about space colonisation says that to make it viable you need power and physical space on a scale that isn’t significantly harmed by “just” using hydroponics and aeroponics, and the hardest problem in any case is the protein rather than the calories. (That and Trek replicators being much to fast for any mechanism we currently know about, so think “bette…
Protein from hydrocarbons was available since at least seventies. Google paprin, and gaprin. Paprin is yeast eating paraffin, gaprin is methane oxidising bacteria. I myself ate a porridge of paprin once when the food situation in Russia was bad enough.
Interesting is this what you are referring to
>In the Soviet Union, the first production of feed protein from hydrocarbons took place in the 1970s. In total, the country built 12 plants with a designed production performance of around 1 million tonnes per year. This was close to 70% of the world’s bioprotein production at that time. The importance of the bioprotein industry in the country was comparable with that of the nuclear industry, since it allowed the Soviet Union to be self-sufficient in feedstuffs.[1]
According to the article[1] the paprin caused health issues for the animals fed on it and health problems for the people who ate the the meat obtained from the animals.
>Paprin had a devastating impact on animal health. This product disturbed the hormonal and water balance, causing the formation of oedema all over the animals’ bodies, the Russian Business Consulting agency reported, citing research by the Bashkiria State University. Meat obtained from these animals was causing flare-ups of chronic diseases in consumers. “Meat obtained from animals fed with Paprin contained an accumulation of abnormal amino acids that were incorporated into the membranes of nerve cells, thus disrupting the process of conducting a normal nerve impulse,” said Raisa Bashirova, senior researcher at Bashkiria State University. She added that it was even dangerous for humans to work with Paprin: “The workers at the plants and local residents were developing diseases such as thrush and bronchial asthma.”
While the grapin was proved to be safe.
[1]https://www.allaboutfeed.net/all-about/new-proteins/bioprote...
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose the upside could be that you _could_ imagine (if, of course, the whole thing was efficient enough) a process where you use low-carbon electricity (nuclear or poorly-timed renewables) to power CO2 capture from air, and then turn the CO2 into starch, and then maybe turn the starch into something edible ? (I don't have enough grain of salts to take my own words here...) It's a huge stretch to image that being…
There may be places where you would want access to starches, agriculture is not feasible, transportation costs are prohibitive, but you also have abundant power. I’m struggling to think of a place that meets all those criteria.
If it's really more efficient than plants, then it would make sense to have solar panels combined with this process also in places where agriculture is feasible and there are no issues with transportation costs.
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#27Another almost content free press release.
I wish that there could be some standard that press releases would adhere to that would require them to link to authoritative documents and to include statements of energy efficiency, etc.
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
See jarenmf's comment. Basically the CO2 is catalyzed into Methane using an 'inorganic catalyst', there is this paper[1] which uses a ruthenium catalyst at 400 degrees C to do it. Then the methane is consumed by some genetically modified bacteria (probably e.coli) first to convert it to an intermediate product, and then with a second organism to convert it into starch. In the article they talk about genetically modif…
Most of the methane comes from cattle belching, so it's basically impossible to harvest at scale. The lagoons of manure also do, and that can be harvested though it's hard. https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/33/which-is-a-bigger-methane-so...
I came up with this solution:
https://i.imgur.com/8BNktVY.png
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#29Another almost content free press release. I wish that there could be some standard that press releases would adhere to that would require them to link to authoritative documents and to include statements of energy efficiency, etc.
The referenced paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh4049
Re: Scientists complete starch synthesis from CO2, revolutionary for agricultural
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suppose the upside could be that you _could_ imagine (if, of course, the whole thing was efficient enough) a process where you use low-carbon electricity (nuclear or poorly-timed renewables) to power CO2 capture from air, and then turn the CO2 into starch, and then maybe turn the starch into something edible ? (I don't have enough grain of salts to take my own words here...) It's a huge stretch to image that being…
There may be places where you would want access to starches, agriculture is not feasible, transportation costs are prohibitive, but you also have abundant power. I’m struggling to think of a place that meets all those criteria.
Mars?