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Solein – Protein out of thin air

solein.com

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Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#81

Post by mrguyorama »

88913527 wrote: post #46
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…

The 'holes' created by industrial farming aren't missing dirt, it's missing water. https://blogs.agu.org/geospace/files/2019/03/Subsidence.jpg https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci...

Don't worry, kevin over there in silicon valley is doing his part by taking a short shower! /s

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#82

Post by mrguyorama »

namuol wrote: post #12

From 2020, so not sure how up to date this is: “Solar Foods is a Finland-based start-up company that utilises CO2 captured from air, water and some minerals as sole raw materials to produce a protein powder using renewable electricity. Branded as Solein®, the product is a microbial protein (also referred to as single cell protein, SCP) obtained by growing proprietary bacteria harvested from nature, in specially desig…

IME this company is just https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn with way more money spent on PR

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#83

Post by feifan »

fabian2k wrote: post #74

> 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. There is no nitrogen mentioned in this explanation. You cannot make amino acids or proteins without nitrogen. These organism either have to be able to do nitrogen-fixation fr…

Their other website[0] mentions nitrogen from the air.

[0]: https://solarfoods.com/science/

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#84

Post by mrguyorama »

justlv wrote: post #17
2Gkashmiri wrote: post #8

>Seriously. Solein® is a unique single-cell protein made with a fully natural fermentation process. Using just air and electricity as its primary raw materials, Solein is the most sustainable protein in the world. so..... instead of "wasting" time in spending water and soil and fertilizer into making plants that use solar energy to create "food", we skip that step and just use electricity that is generated from solar…

I’d guess it is because either photosynthesis isn’t actually that efficient, and/or a lot of the energy goes into growing structural elements of the plant.

Photosynthesis is very efficient! .....at using carbon. Even plants figured out that solar energy should be too cheap to meter

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#86

Post by photochemsyn »

DesertVarnish wrote: post #65
washbrain wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The competition would be carbon neutral pesticide free soybeans, which I'm not sure are readily available? Soybeans also typically use energy intensive nitrogen fertilizers, which I'm not sure this process requires. (It might, not sure.) Also, soybeans need to be shipped from fertile areas. This could be produced in situ in infertile areas. I'm not saying it's a panacea, but it has some benefits over traditional inte…

Is it actually standard practice to use nitrogen fertilizers with soybeans? Soy is a nitrogen fixer and I've read that nitrogen fertilizers often reduce yields for soybeans because it interferes with nodulation and undermines that plant's nitrogen fixing capacities.

Apparently soybeans are often grown in a double-cropping rotation, in which maize is planted first (along with N and P fertilization), and then no additional fertilizer is applied to the following soybean crop.

This seems to be a comprehensive discussion (for South Dakota farmers anyway, pdf):

https://extension.sdstate.edu/sites/default/files/2020-03/S-...

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#87

Post by highwaylights »

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…

> None of their PR discusses cost of the product.

Or a licensing deal with Dolly Parton. It’s right there. The ad makes itself.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#89

Post by justinator »

feifan wrote: post #83
fabian2k wrote: post #74

> 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. There is no nitrogen mentioned in this explanation. You cannot make amino acids or proteins without nitrogen. These organism either have to be able to do nitrogen-fixation fr…

Their other website[0] mentions nitrogen from the air. [0]: https://solarfoods.com/science/

That would be... Nobel Prize worthy at scale.

Re: Solein – Protein out of thin air

#90

Post by cmroanirgo »

photochemsyn wrote: post #86
DesertVarnish wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it actually standard practice to use nitrogen fertilizers with soybeans? Soy is a nitrogen fixer and I've read that nitrogen fertilizers often reduce yields for soybeans because it interferes with nodulation and undermines that plant's nitrogen fixing capacities.

Apparently soybeans are often grown in a double-cropping rotation, in which maize is planted first (along with N and P fertilization), and then no additional fertilizer is applied to the following soybean crop. This seems to be a comprehensive discussion (for South Dakota farmers anyway, pdf): https://extension.sdstate.edu/sites/default/files/2020-03/S-...

Making use of nitrogen fixing plants alleviates the need of fertilization. An easy one: clover. Bees also love clover. However you can explore other systems of cover cropping (I recall Diakon radishes draw up nitrogen from down low, up to the surface) which you terminate before seeding your main crop.
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