Chinese researchers said they developed the technology to convert industrial emissions into animal feed at scale, a move that could reduce the country’s dependence on imported raw materials such as soybeans.
The technology involves synthesizing industrial exhaust gases that contain carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen into proteins by using Clostridium autoethanogenum, a bacterium that is used to produce ethanol.
China is the main importer of Soy, which is crushed to produce flour, mainly to feed its pig population, which is the largest in the world. The country buys huge volumes from nations like Brazil, Argentina and the United States.
The commodity has also been a major source of friction that has contributed to trade tensions between the United States and China.
China it faces a shortage of agricultural commodities due to the lack of productive farmland and the increasing demand for a more prosperous population, and tries to increase yields and reduce waste.
The Science and Technology Daily said that 80% of the raw material needs of China for dietary proteins they are met by imports.
And China can produce 10 million tons of synthetic protein using the new technology, that would equal about 28 million tons of soy imports, the researchers said.
The production of synthetic proteins for animal feed on a large scale would also help China in their decarbonization program, they added, an important political objective of the Communist Party.
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