| | | <<Dark Side of China>>
if below true and of merit, and I cannot judge, then per imperatives leads to solutions.
I am not in a position to understand the implications or advisability, but sounds neat, as well as bananas. Alas, soybean is not carbon energy, semiconductor, or USD, the three top imperatives of China, but soya might just be #4
Nothing like a 'trade' war to get the creative process underway
If the protocol works, and works well, can be democratically dispensed widely around the planet to increase protein supply, and save more resources in USA and Brazil for more productive use :0)
scmp.com
Chinese scientists hail breakthrough that could produce large quantities of animal feed from industrial gas and reduce dependence on soybean imports
- Researchers say the process could be a ‘carbon revolution’ that would benefit the agricultural industry and help reduce harmful emissions
- The product produced by a series of reactions could provide tens of thousands of tonnes of protein that can be used to feed animals
China’s scientists say they have found a way to create animal feed from carbon monoxide on an industrial scale – a breakthrough that could help reduce the country’s dependence on imported soybeans.
The process uses tail gas containing carbon monoxide and dioxide – a by-product of industrial processes such as oil refining – to created a synthesised cell protein called Clostridium autoethanogenum, according to the research team from Beijing Shoulang Biological Technology and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Feed Research Institute.
According to the team, the gases go through a series of processes including fermentation, oxidation, distillation and dehydration that converts the nitrogen and carbon into organic material.
Scientists have already known that protein could be produced this way, but the Chinese team said the speed and efficiency of their process would make it possible to do so on an industrial scale.
According to the official publication Science and Technology Daily and Agri.cn, a website affiliated with the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, they already had the capacity to produce tens of thousands of tonnes a year.
Dai Xiaofeng, head of the feed research institute, said that the achievement would transform the traditional production of natural proteins and “not only provides a sharp weapon for the soybean protein feed industry, but also for the zero-emission of greenhouse gases and greener industrial process”, he told Agri.cn.
“If China’s steel manufacturers, coal power plants, petrochemical companies and coal processors can all apply [this technology], it will be a carbon revolution that can effectively advance the carbon cycle, carbon utilisation and carbon capture processes, with remarkable economic, social and ecological benefits and great strategic significance,” Dai said.
China currently imports more than 100 million tonnes of soybeans each year – around 80 per cent of the total consumed – since it cannot produce enough to support its large and rapidly growing livestock industry.
This dependence on imported soybeans has become a threat to the country’s agricultural sector and food security and became a major area of conflict during the trade war with the United States.
The phase one trade deal secured during Donald Trump’s presidency included a commitment from Beijing to buy certain quantities of US agricultural products.
If China could industrially produce 10 million tons of Clostridium autoethanogenum cell protein a year with the new technology, it would be equivalent to 28 million tons of imported soybeans, according to Xue Min, researcher at the CAAS and the chief scientist of the research team.
China imported 6.88 million tonnes of soybeans last month, down 29.8 per cent from a year earlier, according to customs data. The purchase of US soybeans fell by 85.5 per cent to 169,439 tonnes.
The natural synthesis of proteins usually takes place in plants or in specific microorganisms of plants, which requires natural photosynthesis and a series of complex biological processes.
But the process is slow and inefficient, resulting in a low protein content. However, the Chinese scientists say their new process can overcome these barriers and produce a high-protein material in just 22 seconds. |
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