Futuristic Farmers Deploy Solar Power To Farm For Microbes
Ambient air carbon capture has come in for its share of ridicule over the years, but fans of the technology finally have something to cheer about. As applied to farming, carbon can be plucked from the air to boost crop yields. All that’s needed is an assist from solar power and some other equipment. An international research team has the goods to prove it, only the crops in question ain’t no ordinary food crops.
Future Farming: Microbial Protein Edition
If you’re guessing microbial protein powder is in the mix, run right out and buy yourself a cigar. Researchers have been looking into the production of microbial protein as an energy efficient, water saving, and land conserving alternative to farming for conventional animal and plant proteins.
Microbial protein refers to just what you might think it does: tiny bits of living matter in the form of algae, yeast, fungi, or bacteria, murdered and dried into a powder.
That doesn’t sound too appetizing, but back in 2016, researchers took note that the “time has come to re‐assess the current potentials of producing protein‐rich feed or food additives in the form of algae, yeasts, fungi and plain bacterial cellular biomass, producible with a lower environmental footprint compared with other plant or animal‐based alternatives.”
They also observed that non-technological roadblocks are in the way.
“In order for microbial protein as feed or food to become a major and sustainable alternative, addressing the challenges of creating awareness and achieving public and broader regulatory acceptance are real and need to be addressed with care and expedience,” they wrote.
Sure enough, animal feed is the leading market for microbial protein today, with aquaculture being the main driver.
As for humans, microbial protein hasn’t quite caught hold in the popular imagination yet. However, it is emerging as a health supplement, so that’s a start.
Solar Power (& Carbon Capture) For Better Microbial Protein Farming
If microbial protein powder is to become the food of the future, investors need to be convinced that it is a money-maker compared to conventional crops, and that’s where the new research comes in.
Earlier this year, an international research team studied a microbial protein farming method that deploys solar power with carbon capture along with two other necessary components, land and nutrients.
“The study carried out an analysis of the energy requirements for each step, from the very start to the end product, taking into account: electricity generation (from solar panels), electrochemical production of energy-rich substrate for the microbes, microbe cultivation, harvesting, and processing the protein-rich biomass,” explained Göttingen University, which was the former home of first author on the study, Dorian Leger.
“We show that the production of microbial foods outperforms agricultural cultivation of staple crops in terms of caloric and protein yields per land area at all relevant solar irradiance levels. These results suggest that microbial foods could substantially contribute to feeding a growing population and can assist in allocating future limited land resources,” the researchers concluded.
Let’s Get Excited About The Solar Power & Protein Powder Mashup
For all the juicy details, look up “Photovoltaic-driven microbial protein production can use land and sunlight more efficiently than conventional crops” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Meanwhile, it appears that the solar power plus carbon capture angle is not waiting around to leap the Valley of Death that can trap promising new technology in the lab forever.
Over in Finland, a startup called Solar Foods has just nailed down the first ever investment from the new Finnish Climate Fund, to the tune of €10 million. That pumps Solar Foods’s finanical profile up to a total of €35 million to commericialize its proprietary Solein® microbial protein powder.
Solar Foods appears to have taken a look back at the 2016 research, and they are not taking the public awareness angle for granted.
The company is pitching its product straight to the tech-savvy, transparency-demanding foodie of the future.
“Solar Foods has turned sci-fi into reality — it is now possible to produce nutritionally complete protein using carbon dioxide in the air and electricity as its primary raw materials,” the company enthuses, explaining that its first industrial-scale demonstrator facility in Finland will include “the Solein Experience Hub and a future-food bar to provide citizens with an entirely new level of transparency in food production.”
“We want to disconnect food production from the accelerating consumption of natural resources. It is fascinating to be part of making this happen,” they add.
As for the aesthetic experience, Solar Foods has that covered as well.
“Solein vanishes into daily meals, while at the same time maintaining its rich nutritional value and offering a unified solution that caters to virtually every imaginable meal of today and tomorrow,” explains Solar Foods CTO and co-founder Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, adding that “Our vision is to change the way food is produced. The world has hope. The food of the future is no longer a utopia, it is already being produced.”
Solar Power Plus Carbon Capture For The Sustainable The Farm Of The Future
Sweet. Don’t break out the knives and forks just yet, though. Solar Foods is looking to start operations at the new facility in 2023, so let’s take this opportunity to take a closer look at the solar power angle.
Solar Foods estimates that Solein’s comparative greenhouse gas emissions involved in Solein production are only about 1% compared to meat protein, and 20% compared to plant protein production, partly due to the use of solar power to generate electricity for ambient air carbon capture and other systems.
If you’re thinking that the emerging field of agrivoltaics could possibly come into play, that’s possible. Agrivoltaics refers to the combination of solar power with farming practices that conserve soil and build soil health. The trend has already caught on among livestock farmers, who graze sheep and cattle amongst the arrays of solar panels on their land. The solar power plus farming trend is also coming into vogue as a means of expanding pollinator habitats.
Solar Foods envisions parking its systems in deserts where regular food crops can’t grow, but in other areas the solar farm component of the system could do double duty as a host for pollinator habitats or shade-tolerant crops, providing an additional layer of sustainability pixie dust to microbial protein farming.
Solar Power & The Fourth Agricultural Revolution
Commercial agriculture has changed over the years, but solar power is always at the heart of it.
As Solar Foods explained in a recent blog post, taking things down to the cellular level is the next logical step, sustainably speaking.
“It is being called the fourth agricultural revolution. The first one taking place when humans started farming around 12,000 years ago, the second was the reorganisation of farmland after the Middle Ages, and the third (also known as the Green Revolution) was the introduction of chemical fertilisers and pesticides alongside heavy machinery and mass production from the 1950s onwards,” Solar Foods wrote.
When you put it that way, “cellular agriculture” is not even as much of a switcheroo as the transition from the Middle Ages to industrial farming. It’s just more industrial farming, fine tuned with 21st century technology including artificial intelligence, robots, gene editing, and of course, carbon capture and solar power for maximum sustainability.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Image: Microbial protein farming with solar power and ambient air carbon capture courtesy of Göttingen University.
![The new Momentum Cito E+ dares you to leave the car at home [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/04/momentum-cito-e.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
All the cool suburbanites are already taking their kids to school, loading up at the farmers’ market, and making deliveries on clever and capable cargo e-bikes, but the new Momentum Cito E+ from Giant raises the cargo bike bar even higher — and makes leaving the car at home easier than ever.
Momentum is a new brand of “lifestyle” e-bikes from Giant Group designed to deliver premium features to customers while still hitting that $3,000-4,000 market “sweet spot.” Their latest bike, the all-new for 2024 Cito E+ utility bike, does just that, coming to market with a premium battery, Bluetooth technology, a suite of high-end safety features, and a $3,200 starting price.
Premium battery
Getting the most out of your e-bike often means getting the most out of your battery — and Momentum absolutely gets that. The Cito E+ ships with a 780 Watt-hour Panasonic battery pack with 22700 cells that have been optimized for e-bike use.
Compared to other ebike batteries with similar power ratings, the Momentum’s Panasonic battery promises to be lighter and more durable, with superior IPX7 weather protection, thermal regulation, and other safety features built-in (in fact, Panasonic was the first e-bike supplier to score a UL safety rating for its batteries).
The battery is easily removable for charging at home or in an office, but it can be charged while it’s in the bike, too. Either way, charging won’t take long — from 0 to 80% of charge (approx. 60 miles) of range is available in 3.5 hours, while a full (75 mile) charge takes less than 5 hours.
Connected cargo bike
As our test rider highlights in the video (above), the Momentum Cito E+ uses a proprietary battery management system, or BMS, to monitor the battery pack for maximum efficiency and reliability down to the individual cell level.
The BMS uses Bluetooth connectivity to transfer battery health data, state of charge, and other important information straight to the RideControl app, which enables the bike’s owner to get an in-depth look at the overall state of their e-bike and provides valuable diagnostic data to both the technicians tasked with servicing the bike and Giant themselves, to help develop even better e-bikes in the future.
That connection to Giant Group is a huge potential benefit to Momentum Cito E+ buyers, by the way, as it gives them access to support from more than 1,200 brick and mortar Giant dealers across the US alone (above).
That’s a serious advantage that online-only bike brands simply can’t match.
Safety first … and maybe second, too
Momentum’s commitment to safety doesn’t stop at the battery. The Cito E+ features confidence-inspiring 4 piston hydraulic disc brakes and a heavy duty suspension for predictable handling even under heavy loads — important if you have to suddenly haul the bike down from its electronically assisted 28 mph top speed with precious kids and cargo on the back.
LED head and taillights with a lever-activated taillight ensure Cito E+ riders will be seen, too, helping you stay safer after hours.
Accessories and add-ons
Momentum’s Cito E+ offers a comprehensive selection of accessories to help optimize it for each rider’s unique use case — whether that’s hauling up to 132 lbs. of cargo on the rear rack and 33 lbs. on the optional front basket (shown, above), or adding 2 Thule Yepp Maxi seats and getting the little ones to school five times a week.
You can find out more about the Momentum Cito E+ and the brand’s available accessories by clicking here.
Momentum Cito E+ gallery
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Environment
‘This is a unique time’: ARK Invest’s chief futurist tackles tech innovation from AI to robotics
ARK Invest’s chief futurist lists five groups that should give tech investors an edge.
According to Brett Winton, robotics, artificial intelligence, multi-omics sequencing, public blockchain and energy storage are key areas because they’re all entering the marketplace at the same time.
“We believe that this is a unique time in technological economic history,” he told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week.
Winton collaborates with ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood to maintain the ARK Venture Fund (ARKVX), which allows investors to buy into the private technology space.
According to the firm’s website, the goal of the fund is to make venture capital offerings of innovative spaces in the market accessible to individual investors. As of April 10, it shows the fund’s top holdings include Epic Games, known for online video game Fortnite, and biotech companies Freenome and Relation Therapeutics.
“Our emphasis is that we are investing in innovation over the long term and going to support management teams,” said Winton.
He contends it’s a strategy that’s often not prioritized.
“That’s a real challenge a lot of public market investors don’t have that long-term view,” Winton added.
The ARK Venture Fund is down more than 7% so far this year. However, it’s up almost 39% percent over the past 52-weeks.
FirstElement Fuels has opened the world’s first large-scale hydrogen fueling station for heavy-duty commercial trucks just outside the Port of Oakland.
FirstElement is calling their new filling station, which opened to the public this week for tours and demonstrations, the first of its kind. Located near the Port of Oakland, the company claims its hydrogen pumps can “fill” a truck’s hydrogen tanks in as little as ten minutes, which works out (in their math) to as many as 200 trucks per day.
As for customers, the company says there are 30 Hyundai Xcient semi trucks using the fueling station currently, as well as a number of Nikola hydrogen fuel-cell-powered trucks.
A ceremony to mark the station’s opening was held Tuesday, and was attended by state officials including Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Tyson Eckerle, clean transportation advisor for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s business development office. Primary funding for the Oakland station was provided by CARB and the California Energy Commission.
Eckerle notes that the US federal government is handing out $8 billion to jump-start what it calls the “hydrogen economy,” and expects sufficient funding to build up to 60 more hydrogen truck stations like this one in California – which would, theoretically, be enough to serve 5,000 trucks and 1,000 buses.
All well and good, but …
What if it’s already too late for hydrogen?
MAN Trucks CEO, Alexander Vlaskamp, said it best when he said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to effectively compete with BEVs.
He’s right – on a level playing field, there is absolutely no reason to believe hydrogen has any kind of future. But we don’t operate on a level playing field, and comments like Eckerle’s, along with an $8 billion federal budget and a number of supposedly genuine industry experts touting its usefulness as a fuel, mean we have to take hydrogen seriously (at least, for now).
Even so, it seems like the tide of public opinion is already starting to turn against hydrogen. Outlets that may never have questioned a manufacturer’s claims about a hydrogen-fueled vehicle a few years ago now seem more than willing to call those claims out. Here’s just one example:
Producing hydrogen itself can be very dirty. Most hydrogen produced today requires methane, which is a fossil fuel and a strong greenhouse gas contributor. The industry is working on production alternatives, including carbon capture and storage from the burning of methane, or quitting methane altogether to make green hydrogen, using an electrolyzer to split water’s hydrogen and oxygen.
Both alternatives are prohibitively expensive without government subsidies.
RUSS MITCHELL, AOL/Los Angeles TIMES.
So far, it’s not clear that FirstElement’s claims about either the sustainability of its hydrogen or the practicality of its filling station will convince many battery electric absolutists.
Take the company’s hydrogen production process as an example. FirstElement says that its supplier, Air Liquide in Las Vegas, uses natural gas as “feedstock” for its hydrogen. It buys biogas to blend with natural gas in order to create hydrogen – and that, because the gas used is more than 60% renewable, the hydrogen qualifies as “green.”
FirstElement hydrogen production
Additionally, the claim of 10 minute fast fills should come with an asterisk or two. That’s because FirstGreen is using new “cryopump” technology from Bosch Rexroth to allow for filling at 900 bar (15,000 psi). While that seems like more enough to push 100 kg into a tank in about ten minutes, cryogenically cooling hydrogen is an energy intensive technology that requires a lot of electricity to function properly. Electricity that it says will come from the stored hydrogen.
In fairness, however, Bosch has some ideas here to help station owners maximize the usefulness of all that electricity.
“Cold is like gold,” says Dave Hull, regional vice-president, Bosch Rexroth. “You’ve got all this cold energy. All my career I worked to get rid of heat. You can take that energy and run a whole station’s refrigerators for Rock Star energy drinks, or air conditioning. Bosh has a whole division of heat pumps and building technologies.”
Whether or not that added efficiency adds up to actual energy and cost savings, rather than a lifeline for the gas industry and tier 1 auto suppliers like Bosch however, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, hydrogen costs continue to rise.
Platts last assessed California’s retail hydrogen price at $33.48/kg Jan. 4, 2023, which is the weighted average hydrogen price offered at retail fueling stations across the state. The price has risen 112% from when Platts began the assessment in September 2021, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.
Despite the high cost of hydrogen (“green” hydrogen is more expensive, still), Shane Stephens, one of FirstElement’s founders and its chief development officer, remains undeterred.
“We, at FirstElement Fuels, have a lot of confidence the market is coming,” says Stephens. “We see the regulations on the horizon, the OEMs and fleet owners are going to have to respond to that, especially when it comes to goods movement, and hydrogen and fuel cells are the best – if not only – solution that will work for many of those use cases.”
Electrek’s Take
As a light vehicle fuel – despite the efforts of Hyundai, Toyota, and (more recently) Honda – things aren’t going well for hydrogen. As a fuel for massive semi trucks and even bigger heavy equipment, however, it might stand a chance against current battery technology.
But battery tech isn’t stagnant, and lighter, better, faster charging battery news that used to come every year, and then every month, now seems to be coming every week – and I’d argue that you’d be foolish to assume batteries that are twice as energy dense at half the weight won’t be here well ahead of California’s 2035 ICE ban.
But that’s just me. You guys are smart. Head on down to the comments and let us know what you think.
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