Chinese scientists achieve artificial synthesis from carbon monoxide to protein

The Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced on October 30 that China has made a major breakthrough in the field of one-carbon biosynthesis: the world's first realization of the synthesis of carbon monoxide to protein, and has formed a 10,000-ton industrial capacity
.
This move breaks through the time and space constraints of natural protein plant synthesis, and provides a national weapon for making up for the biggest shortcoming of China's agriculture-the excessive dependence of feed protein on foreign sources.

According to Dr.
Xue Min, the chief scientist of the project and a researcher at the Institute of Feed Research of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the natural synthesis of protein is usually in plants or specific microorganisms that have nitrogen-fixing function.
Multiple complex biological conversions and enzymatic reactions in the acid cycle pathway form amino acids required for protein synthesis, which are then synthesized into proteins
.
It involves complex genetic expression, biochemical synthesis, physiological regulation and other life processes, slow response, low material and energy conversion efficiency, and low final accumulated protein content

She emphasized that under artificial conditions, large-scale biosynthesis of proteins using naturally occurring carbon monoxide and nitrogen sources (ammonia) is not subject to this limitation.
Therefore, it has long been considered by the international academic community to affect the development of human civilization and the understanding of life phenomena.
The revolutionary frontier science and technology
.

After years of joint research, the Feed Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Beijing Shoulang Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
have broken through the core key technology of Clostridium ethanolicum protein, greatly increased the reaction speed (22-second synthesis), and created industrial conditions for the next step of biosynthetic protein production.
The world record with the highest rate of 85%
.

This research uses industrial exhaust gas containing carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and ammonia as the main raw materials to produce a new type of feed protein resource Clostridium ethanolicum protein, which converts inorganic nitrogen and carbon into organic nitrogen and carbon, achieving a scale from 0 to 1.
The independent innovation has completely independent intellectual property rights
.

Based on the industrial production of 10 million tons of Clostridium ethanolate protein (83% protein content), it is equivalent to 28 million tons of imported soybeans (protein content 30%) equivalent.
A new way to produce high-quality feed protein from low-cost non-traditional animal and plant resources can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 250 million tons and save 1 billion mu of arable land (based on an average yield of 300 kilograms of soybeans per mu)
.

The innovation of "piercing a layer of window paper" in scientific discoveries can sometimes unearth great potential.
The case of "'Clostridium ethanoate protein' becoming a new product of feed ingredients" is a clear proof

On October 30, the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Feed Institute) and Beijing Shougang Longze New Energy Technology Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as Shougang Longze) jointly held a press conference and announced the recent breakthroughs made by their cooperative R&D team Sexual progress: The synthesis of carbon monoxide (CO) to protein has been realized for the first time in the world, and an industrial production capacity of 10,000 tons has been formed
.
Based on the results of the cooperation, Shougang Langze won China's first new product certificate for feed ingredients with the help of Clostridium ethanolicum protein

Piercing "window paper", "waste" is actually a treasure

"The breakthrough of the innovative "window paper" came from the accidental combination of the Feed Institute and Shougang Langze
.
" Xue Min, chief scientist of the feed processing innovation team of the Feed Institute, briefly told the "China Science News" the story behind it

A few years ago, Shougang Lanze focused on the research and development of the ethanol synthesis process by gas bio-fermentation
.
Researchers found on the pilot production line that there was a "troublesome viscous substance" in the ethanol separation and distillation process, so they separated it to clarify its composition

Unexpectedly, I don't know
.
It was found in the feed that these viscous substances that were in danger of being discarded were actually mainly protein (Clostridium ethanoicum protein)

Clostridium ethanolicum was first isolated from the intestines of rabbits in 1994 by Belgian scientists
.
It is an anaerobic bacteria that can produce ethanol from carbon monoxide .

Faced with this protein with super-normal viscosity, the research team of the Feed Institute began to wonder: Can it play its role in low-starch extruded feed? So they took an extra step: they did a systematic study on the functional properties, nutritional value, and processing suitability of the Clostridium ethanolicum protein, and found that its crude protein content can reach more than 80%, and 18 amino acids account for 94% of the protein.
It is a simple protein type; the content of 10 essential amino acids and their structural ratio are close to fish meal, far better than soybean meal
.

In a word, the product has excellent feed protein raw material characteristics
.
The research team of the Institute of Feed found a variety of farmed fish for experiments and found that the product is very suitable for use as fish feed
.

Knowing this situation, the feed institute and Shougang Langze decided to work together to tackle the key problem and retrieve the discarded "treasure"
.

After 6 years of research and development and demonstration, from an annual output of 300 tons to 5,000 tons to 10,000 tons, Shougang Langze has embarked on the road of industrialization of new feed raw materials from pilot trials to large-scale production.
The feed institute is also "inadvertently "Promoting the wide application of Clostridium ethanolicum protein from unknown bacteria to the feed industry
.

Industrial exhaust gas as raw material, 22 seconds "one-step biosynthesis"

A highlight of this achievement is that one of the raw materials for the synthesis of Clostridium ethanolicum protein in the project is industrial exhaust gas.
A large amount of CO in the industrial exhaust gas is an excellent raw material for the production of bacterial protein and ethanol by Clostridium ethanolicum
.
Not only is the cost of industrial exhaust gas extremely low, but its sources are also very extensive: including steel mills, ferroalloy plants, calcium carbide plants, etc.
, and the resources are very rich
.

According to reports, Beijing Shoulang Biotechnology Co.
, Ltd.
(hereinafter referred to as Shoulang Bio), a subsidiary of Shougang Langze, has developed a new feed protein product Clostridium ethanolate protein (registered trademark "Fu Yule") using CO-rich industrial exhaust gas
.
The protein product has obtained the new product certificate issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on August 27, which is also China's first new product certificate for feed ingredients
.

Of course, biosynthetic protein requires not only a carbon source, but also a nitrogen source
.
Chao Wei, senior vice president of Shougang Lanze, introduced that Shoulang Bio uses CO in the exhaust gas of the steel mill as the carbon source and ammonia as the nitrogen source.
The optimized anaerobic fermentation process achieves rapid conversion in 22 seconds and efficiently produces ethanol and ethanol.
Clostridial protein realizes the one-step transformation of inorganic matter into organic matter
.

"This is the most efficient biological carbon fixation/nitrogen fixation production model found in the world so far
.
" Xue Min said that 22 seconds refers to the time it takes to input CO synthesis gas and biotransform to produce ethanol and bacterial protein mash
.
Subsequently, the protein mash is processed into dry powder
.

In addition, since Clostridium ethanoides can be completely inactivated by air exposure, the bacteria are concentrated by centrifugation and spray-dried to produce Clostridium ethanoides protein products.
The production cost is much lower than that of single-cell protein products such as yeast and microalgae
.
This also means that using this result to synthesize proteins efficiently by microorganisms has a significant cost-effective advantage
.

Three birds with one stone, protein "made out of nothing" is of great significance

At the press conference, Yin Yulong, an animal nutritionist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, affirmed the breakthrough of the achievement through a video connection: "The achievement of the achievement is of great significance for industrialization, and I hope the team will further expand production
.
"

Dai Xiaofeng, director of the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told China Science Daily that the significance of one-step biosynthesis of feed protein to achieve industrial production is to help China get rid of the "soybean import dependency syndrome" and help achieve "carbon neutrality
.
"

According to estimates, China can produce at least 1.
2 trillion cubic meters of CO-rich industrial tail gas each year.
If these industrial tail gas is used for efficient and clean use of bio-fermentation technology, it can produce 10 million tons of Clostridium ethanoic protein per year, which can be used to replace fish meal.
And soy protein
.

Dai Xiaofeng said that based on the industrial production of 10 million tons of Clostridium ethanolate protein (83% protein content), it is equivalent to 28 million tons of imported soybean equivalent, which is equivalent to 1/3 of China's annual soybean imports
.
At the same time, synthetic protein has also opened up a new way of "low-cost non-traditional animal and plant resources to produce high-quality feed protein".
Every 10 million tons of this protein produced is equivalent to 250 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions
.

Li Aike, chief researcher of the Academy of Sciences of the State Administration of Grain and Material Reserves, believes that the biggest highlight of this achievement lies in "using microbial protein production to solve the problem of protein shortage
.
"

He introduced that China has listed "microbial protein production" as a research topic since the 1980s.
The problem of synthesizing protein from carbon compounds has been studied for a long time in the world, but it has not been able to achieve industrialization.
The joint R&D team is precisely Make this vision a reality
.
He said that for China, if a larger-scale industrialization of synthetic protein can be realized, it will be of great significance to China's feed protein supply and food security
.

Lin Min, a researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, compared the results with biological nitrogen fixation.
He proposed that the international community likes to compare biological nitrogen fixation to "air breading", so perhaps it is possible to compare artificially synthesized proteins that do not rely on plants to "cans in the production of wine and meat"
.

A 10,000-ton-level industrial production capacity has been formed, and there are still scientific problems to be solved

Regarding the approval of Clostridium ethanolicum protein as a new feed protein product, Huang Qingsheng, Director of the Feed and Forage Division of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, commented that the product has passed the National Feed Review Committee on its safety, effectiveness, and environmental impact assessment “It is worth issuing the first new product certificate of feed ingredients in China”
.

Chao Wei revealed at the press conference that at present, based on the technical achievements and after years of layout, Sulang Bio has achieved a three-year stable production of artificially synthesized Clostridium ethanolicum protein in a pilot test, and completed a 10,000-ton protein production capacity this year.
Production line construction
.
In addition, in 2022, it will further expand its production, "promoting to the production capacity of 30,000 tons
.
"

Chao Wei told the China Science Daily that the reason for the rapid increase in production capacity is "idealism" on the one hand, and hopes that the large-scale promotion of new feed protein products can effectively reduce China's soybean dependence on foreign countries and help "carbon neutrality"; On the one hand, it is the "realistic demand".
Since some companies have evaluated and used new products and discovered their advantages, their "appetite" has greatly increased, and now the supply of Clostridium ethanoides protein "is in short supply
.
"

From October 21st to 27th, Shougang Langze Bio-Carbon Sequestration Technology, as one of the representative technologies in the field of "carbon neutrality", was invited to participate in the "Beautiful China Pavilion" at the "13th Five-Year" Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition
.

However, Dai Xiaofeng told the China Science Daily that although the joint R&D team has achieved important research results, it is only "a group of lucky children picked up beautiful shells on the beach.
" In-depth research is carried out on scientific issues such as theoretical mechanism and molecular action
.

Xue Min also told the "China Science News" that although previously, together with Shougang Langze, in the research framework of the national key research and development "blue granary" project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, "the substitution of Clostridium ethanolate protein for soybean meal" and "Clostridium ethanolate protein for aquatic products" have been discussed.
Researches have been carried out on issues such as "animal nutrition analysis", and papers have been published in the domestic journal "Journal of Animal Nutrition" and the international journals "Aquaculture Research" and "Animal Feed Science and Technology", but there is still a lot of scientific work to be carried out
.
She said that in the future, in the process of taking into account scientific issues, we will also pay attention to breakthroughs in engineering issues, and further promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into the main economic battlefield
.

Related references:

paper:

1.
The effect of Clostridium ethanoides protein instead of soybean meal on the growth performance of grass carp, plasma biochemical indexes, hepatopancreas and intestinal histopathology.
Journal of Animal Nutrition, 2018, 30,4190-4201

2.
Study on the replacement of part of fish meal with clostridium unicellular protein in feed for juvenile black sea bream, DOI: 10.
1111/are.
14446

3.
The addition of the new type of Clostridium ethanolicum protein in the feed has a significant promotion effect on the growth performance, antioxidant capacity and immunity of Jian carp juveniles, DOI: 10.
1016/j.
aqrep.
2020.
100572

4.
The addition of homologous Clostridium ethyl alcohol protein to feed regulates the intestinal absorption, antioxidant status and immune response of juvenile gifu tilapia, DOI: 10.
1111/are.
15454

5.
The effect of adding Clostridium ethanoate protein in feed on the growth, body composition and plasma parameters of young tilapia fish, as well as the AMPK/TOR/PI3K signaling pathway of growth and liver-related genes, DOI: 10.
1016/j.
anifeedsci .
2021.
114914

patent:

1.
Application of Clostridium ethanoate protein in low-starch extruded floating feed for carnivorous fish, application number 201910955305.
0

2.
A preparation method of Clostridium spp.
protein, ZL 2019 0732246.
0

3.
Application of a Clostridium Ethanolum protein in sea carnivorous fish, application number: 201910957681.
3

4.
Application of a Clostridium ethoxylate protein in poultry feed, application number: 201910957660.
1