Exploring the synergy between carbon capture and utilization and microbial protein production for a more sustainable food chain
Year: 2021
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: One of the key decarbonisation approaches identified by the European union is carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). The cost-competitiveness of CCU depends upon the generation of high-quality products with a large addressable market. A product with a potentially big market is microbial protein (MP). In this study, the potential of coupling CCU with MP production is investigated. The performed technological analysis, involving the production of four platform chemicals (i.e. formic acid, acetic acid, methanol, ethanol) from CO2 and the use of nine metabolic pathways for their upgrading to MP, shows that the electrical cost of producing protein through this approach varies widely, spanning from 4 to 230 kWh/kg biomass. This indicates that the choice of the platform chemical and of the specific metabolic route implemented, plays a key role in terms of process efficiency. Based on the analysis made here, acetic acid is the most promising platform chemical, due to a high biomass yield (0.31- 0.41 kg biomass/kg substrate) and the low electricity demand for acetic acid production via CCU (5 MWh/ton acetic acid). Formic acid is the least interesting platform chemical, when coupled with MP production, from an energy demand perspective. This is a result of the low biomass yield (0.073 – 0.12 kg biomass/kg substrate). Overall, the electricity demand of CCU dominates the energetic cost, suggesting how future improvements of this currently immature technology could lead to large impacts on the feasibility of the combined process.
Author: L. Van Peteghem
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3210524734