Electric bioreactor to produce food from air

Food is the most basic necessity of life and it is dejecting that a large chunk of the world population is unable to receive even basic nourishment. However with the progress of science and technology, this might not be a problem for our future generations. Thanks to Finnish researchers who have come up with a technology that can produce nutritious ‘food’ literally out of thin air – through an electric bio reactor. Read on to find out how!

Air is the ingredient

An electric bioreactor is a fabulous piece of technology that creates a cultured environment to build a cell through electrolysis and in this case it is food.

The cup sized bioreactor uses carbon dioxide, electricity, water and microbes to create a product that is 50% protein, 25 % carbohydrates and the rest of it is made up of fats and nucleic acid. The product that is created is dried and turned into a powder form which provides you the above mentioned nutrients. While this is not technically food, it is full of the nourishment that we get from eating regular food, probably even more.

Solution to starvation

Currently the bioreactor takes about 2 weeks to produce 1 gram of the final product and the fact that it does not require sizable resources and can be transported to different areas without any negative impact on the product means that you can use this technology to provide nourishment in remote areas, which are often the most in need of it. It also helps that the entire process is environmentally friendly and energy efficient.

So could this could be the solution to the world hunger crisis and the large chunk of the world population that is suffering from undernourishment and malnutrition? Yes, definitely, but it will be at least a decade long wait for the technology to reach public domain and probably a while more for people to actually accept and benefit from it.

We will just have to wait, watch and hope for the best!