A biotech company based in the UK known as Deep Branch has developed a new solution for the ever growing demand for meat and its contribution to greenhouse gases. The amount of CO2 created from this process is thought to make up almost a quarter of overall emissions (according to Carbon Brief).
The company has formulated a new animal feed which will be produced using CO2 from industrial emissions. Using microbes the CO2 will be converted into a new type of single-cell protein called Proton™, a powder which will be used in the animal feed. Using this feed as a substitute should produce far less CO2 than current traditional feeding methods, such as fishmeal and soy, which is how poultry and fish are mainly fed.
Peter Rowe, CEO of Deep Branch, said: “In the UK, and in Europe, poultry and farmed fish are usually fed on fishmeal and soy, which is mainly imported from South America and has a huge environmental impact. We are developing a new, sustainable way of producing animal feed, which reduces CO2 emissions by more than 90 percent, compared to the currently used protein sources.”
According to weforum.org from a single production site, its technology would remove as much CO2 as 300,000 cars emit from their exhausts in a year. Another large benefit of this new product is that unlike fishmeal or soy, there is no fluctuation in price or yield, with reliable manufacturing and no reliance on favourable weather conditions.