BioPro - Low emission protein production from anaerobic digestion gases

欧盟对粗蛋白高达30%的需求是由进口豆粕满足的，这与巴西的森林砍伐有关。英国还严重依赖大豆、油籽和鱼粉进口，最近的政治和经济动荡对动物饲料供应产生了负面影响。作为新兴替代品的昆虫养殖和利用二氧化碳生产鱼粉不能满足动物饲料中对可持续、合乎道德的蛋白质日益增长的需求，虽然植物蛋白质是一种选择，但它们需要大量的土地和水资源，通常被认为更适合人类消费。在当前的合作项目中，来自Novatica Technologies Ltd和切斯特大学的研究团队旨在开发一种技术，利用甲烷营养细菌将**生物甲烷**和**沼气**从厌氧消化转化为单细胞蛋白质SCP，以满足对可持续动物蛋白质日益增长的需求。利用生物甲烷和沼气作为原料生产动物饲料蛋白，可以减少废物，创造价值，促进循环经济，并为传统蛋白质来源提供低成本和可持续的替代方案。通过将各种有机废物厌氧消化产生的温室C1气体转化为高价值产品，我们将创建一个新的闭环低排放食品和饲料生产系统。拟议的生物甲烷/沼气到动物饲料蛋白质价值链将有助于减少垃圾处置和垃圾填埋场的甲烷排放，积极影响英国的厌氧消化器网络，增加废物和温室气体利用的收入，减少对能源密集型氢气工艺和食品和饲料中高风险进口的依赖，并将英国带入蛋白质生产的创新可持续生物技术的前沿。

Up to 30% of the EU's demand for crude protein is fulfilled by imported soybean meal, which is linked to deforestation in Brazil. The UK also heavily relies on soybean, oilseed and fish meal imports, and recent political and economic turmoil has negatively impacted the animal feed supply. Insect farming and fish meal production from CO2 as emerging alternatives can not fulfil the growing demand for sustainable, ethically produced proteins in animal feed and while plant-based proteins are an option, they require significant land and water resources and are often considered more suitable for human consumption.In the current collaborative project, the team of researchers from Novatica Technologies Ltd and the University of Chester aims to develop a technology to convert **biomethane** and **biogas** from anaerobic digestion into single-cell protein SCP using methanotrophic bacteria to meet the growing need for sustainable animal protein. The use of biomethane and biogas as feedstock to produce animal feed proteins can reduce waste, create value, contribute to a circular economy, and provide a low-cost and sustainable alternative to traditional protein sources. By turning greenhouse C1 gases, produced via anaerobic digestion of various organic wastes, into high-value products we will create a novel close-loop low emission food and feed production system.The proposed value chain of biomethane/biogas-to-animal feed proteins will help to reduce waste disposal and methane emissions from landfills, positively affect the UK's network of anaerobic digestors, increase revenues from waste and greenhouse gases utilisation, reduce the reliance on energy-intensive hydrogen-based processes and high-risk imports in food and feed, and bring the UK to the forefront of innovative sustainable biotechnologies for proteins production.