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Solein – Protein out of thin air

solein.com

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Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#31

Post by blacksmith_tb »

vorpalhex wrote: post #29
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, obviously cyanobacteria like Spirulina[1] "utilize CO2 captured from air" along with "water and some minerals" and sunlight to make sugars and proteins which people can eat. Not sure I'd describe that as 'fermentation' though if you do anything in a big vat it's a bioreactor and not just... a big vat, apparently. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_(dietary_supplement)

Also Spirulina in large doses is not kind to your stomach or your bathroom...

Also it stains things almost as badly as beet juice (but it is kind of dramatic to have a dark greenish bowl of oatmeal...)

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#32

Post by sacred_numbers »

gpcr1949 wrote: post #20

I understand it's fake (what is the carbon source? it is stated to be CO_2 neutral) but I guess I don't understand the point or punchline. edit: as pointed out below and elsewhere, the carbon source is CO2, and I misinterpreted the way CO2 neutral is used here, my bad. However there are serious questions to ask about how they are representing and overselling their process. It is a complete misrepresentation to presen…

The carbon source is CO2 in the air. Digesting the food creates CO2, which completes the cycle of carbon neutrality.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#33

Post by gus_massa »

tambourine_man wrote: post #13

I need more details than that, but looks very interesting: “HOW SOLEIN IS MADE Solein® is made from natural single-cell organisms, which are grown in a fermentation process. Water is split from the air with renewable electricity into hydrogen and oxygen. The cells are fed CO2 from the air, hydrogen and mineral nutrients. These microorganisms are then able to make amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), and vitamin…

> These microorganisms are then able to make amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), and vitamins.

* Carbohydrates are easy. (It's actually very difficult to "transform" light into sugar, but there are plenty of plants and bacteria that can do that. They are using Hydrogen instead of light, but so let's say it's "easy".)

* Lipids are even easier. (I can't remember any technical problem here.)

* Amino acids are difficult to create out of thin air. You need energy and also a source of Nitrogen. Transforming the Nitrogen of the atmosphere into amino acids is very difficult and only a few specialized microorganism can do that, so color me skeptical. Another possibility is to give feed them with nitrates, that is a very common and important fertilizer for plants. It's necessary a lot of energy to produce nitrates, so it's not an easy step. Perhaps they can hide the nitrates inside the "mineral nutrients" that is technically true, but it's almost cheating.

* Vitamins are probably also difficult. Each vitamin is very different. I doubt they selected one microorganism that can produce all of them, if that really exists. Also you need a lot of some vitamins and very few of other, the amount is also important. So I guess to use this it's necessary to complement it with vitamins from other sources.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#35

Post by clomond »

Animats wrote: post #24

Most vegetation is made out of air and water. Mostly air. C, O, and N come from air. H comes from water, and some of that comes from water in air. The inputs from dirt are under 5% of plant mass. They have to be, or farms would dig holes in the ground. Feynman talk on this.[1] So, with that out of the way, what does this company actually have? * They have a cool web site with no useful info. * They have another web s…

Not to be incredibly nit-picky, but the costs of the product right now don’t matter nearly as much as the ability to scale production and variable unit costs.

As a ‘hard tech’, they need to work themselves through the technology readiness framework before the cost of a particular material even tells you anything of value.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#37

Post by elil17 »

It's cellular ag without any need for carbohydrate feedstock - instead using hydrogen. That would make it much friendlier in terms of land use than even traditional plant-based ag. Their corporate website is https://solarfoods.com/ and they say they will start production in 2023.

They're working on getting approval from EU food safety regulators: https://solarfoods.com/solein-submitted-to-the-european-comm...

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#39

Post by dekhn »

Animats wrote: post #26
tambourine_man wrote: post #13

I need more details than that, but looks very interesting: “HOW SOLEIN IS MADE Solein® is made from natural single-cell organisms, which are grown in a fermentation process. Water is split from the air with renewable electricity into hydrogen and oxygen. The cells are fed CO2 from the air, hydrogen and mineral nutrients. These microorganisms are then able to make amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids (fats), and vitamin…

similarity of the name with soylent green Remember Soylent, the company and product? They're still around, selling on Amazon.

it was not terrible, I used some when I reached my top weight and used it to replace physical food. Tastes vaguely of peas.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#40

Post by gpcr1949 »

sacred_numbers wrote: post #32
gpcr1949 wrote: post #20

I understand it's fake (what is the carbon source? it is stated to be CO_2 neutral) but I guess I don't understand the point or punchline. edit: as pointed out below and elsewhere, the carbon source is CO2, and I misinterpreted the way CO2 neutral is used here, my bad. However there are serious questions to ask about how they are representing and overselling their process. It is a complete misrepresentation to presen…

The carbon source is CO2 in the air. Digesting the food creates CO2, which completes the cycle of carbon neutrality.

Yes, I read a bit on this (apparently real after all) business and I saw CO2 is the carbon source. It just confused me the promotional website does not even mention CO2. When they called Solein carbon neutral, I assumed they are talking about the product and process, not the entire cycle (in the same way you might call planting trees CO2-emission negative), though this makes sense. In any case, I still find it to be a pretty strong misrepresentation to call this protein synthesis out of "thin air".
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