Making Food from Electricity, Water and Air - Solarfoods

A Finnish company called Solar Foods plans next month to start making a kilo of food a day from nothing but electricity, water and air [with plans to scale].

The company will electrolyze water to produce hydrogen that is used, along with carbon dioxide and small amounts of trace elements, to feed microbes.

The microbial cells, with a protein content of up to 60 percent and an amino acid composition similar to soybeans or algae, will be heat-treated to form a fine powder, similar in appearance and texture to dried milk [..]

The company’s €1 million (USD $1.1 million) pilot plant, near the Finnish capital of Helsinki, is intended as a precursor to commercial-scale operations that could commence as early as the beginning of 2021, depending on European Food Authority (EFA) approval. [..]

If it gets approval, Solar Foods will make an investment decision on commercial production and could move to large-scale manufacturing, producing protein for 50 million meals a year, within 12 months. “We are already able to scale,” Vainikka said.

A full-scale plant would resemble a brewery, he said. Unlike a brewery, though, the microorganisms vital to the production process would feed off hydrogen and carbon dioxide instead of sugars from plant material.

“This is a fundamental difference compared to any of the foods on the market, or technologies or ways to produce food,” said Vainikka. “This way, we can disconnect from land use completely.”

They are also "teaming up with the European Space Agency to create a bioreactor that can make food on Mars".