Making protein out of thin air

From Pop-Tarts to an Espresso Proteini, they're jamming protein into everything these days.

Protein-maxxing — the trend of maximizing protein intake, fueled in part by widespread use of GLP-1 drugs and TikTok — is clearing shelves of cottage cheese, causing a whey shortage, and has farmers going wild for peas.

To meet demand, a new crop of biotech startups is pulling protein out of thin air — using microbes and air to create nutrient-rich protein powders that could be infinitely renewable, per Green Queen.

Is air protein the future of food or just a lot of hot air?

Producing food from air first took shape decades ago when NASA researchers explored the concept for long-haul space missions. (It probably couldn't compete with astronaut ice cream and Tang!)

Inspired by NASA's efforts, Dr. Lisa Dyson and Dr. John Reed launched Air Protein, a protein-rich powder made from air, water, and energy.

• Naturally occurring bacteria that metabolize carbon dioxide are added to tanks with water, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide in fermentation vats.
• Using renewable energy, the bacteria — which acts like a culture for making yogurt — reproduce, quickly filling the vats.
• The bacterial biomass is then dehydrated, leaving a protein powder rich in vitamins, minerals, and all 20 amino acids.

With a neutral flavor, Air Protein can be added to a wide variety of foods and serve as a protein alternative that uses much less land and water than most.

Who else?

A surprising number of other startups are also using microbes and air to create protein:

• Finnish startup Solar Foods just launched a delicious sounding salted caramel cold brew flavored powder with 20g of air protein
• Biosphere received $9M to produce gas-fermented proteins for military rations.
• Danish startup Unibio is building the "world's largest" gas protein factory in Saudi Arabia.
• New Zealand-based Jooules is turning CO2 and microbes into feed for aquaculture.

Air protein may sound a bit too good to be true, and it remains to be seen how scalable it is, but it does seem like a more sustainable approach to keep up with all our protein-maxxing.