China achieves international breakthrough in carbon monoxide-based protein synthesis, achieving 10,000-ton capacity

On 30th October, the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Beijing Shougang Langza New Energy Co., Ltd. jointly announced, after years of combined work, the development of a one-step protein synthesis process based on carbon monoxide, achieving a 10,000-ton capacity for the first time in the world. 

This achievement is a breakthrough in the space-time limit of natural protein synthesis, and will enable China to overcome its agricultural weakness, as well as facilitate the country’s carbon emission control, especially in light of its long-term dependence on imports, with over 80% of its animal feed protein being imported while soybean imports exceed 100 million tons during the peak year. 

Dr. Xue Min, who is the program’s lead scientist and researcher at the Feed Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said natural protein synthesis is usually done through natural circulation inside nitrogen-fixing specific microorganism in plants, which involves related life processes, such as complex genetic expression, biochemical synthesis and physiological regulation. 

“This process is slow in terms of response, and low in efficiency in terms of material and energy conversion, with protein content being eventually low. The biosynthetic protein from naturally occurring carbon monoxide and nitrogen source (ammonia) is very different and is free of these limitations. Therefore, artificial protein synthesis has long been regarded by international academic circles as a revolutionary science and technology, which will bring positive changes to human civilization and improve everyone’s lives,” he added.

For more than six years, Shougang Lanza attempted to make a breakthrough in the key technology of preparing clostridium autoethanogenum protein while achieving an improvement in terms of reaction speed to 22 seconds, as well as setting a world record in biosynthetic protein yield of up to 85% under industrial conditions. Therefore, industrial application can be realized. Shougang Lanza has cooperated with the Feed Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in a systematic evaluation of clostridium autoethanogenum protein, which is being used in the “grain project framework,” a key national research program. In August 2021, the world’s first novel feed and feed additive certification was issued.

The research used carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide-containing industrial exhaust and ammonia water as their main raw materials, from which novel feed protein was produced out of nothing through the conversion of inorganic nitrogen and carbon into organic nitrogen and carbon. This is a “0 to 1” independent innovation, with full proprietary intellectual property rights.

The industrialized 10-million-ton clostridium autoethanogenum protein (protein content 83%) is calculated as equivalent to 28 million tons of imported soybeans (protein content 30%). 

The achievement also enables the realization of the idea of “more land for grain and more grain for people,” which makes it possible to adopt a low-cost and high-quality feed protein production approach. Different from conventional animal and plant origination, the new approach reduces CO2 emissions by 250 million tons.