A new protein synthesized by China will help reduce the country's dependence on soybean imports

The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said the country was the first in the world to successfully synthesize protein from carbon monoxide, and increased its production capacity to 10,000 metric tons.

Protein Clostridium autoethanogenum it is a new type of feed protein synthesized from carbon monoxide found in industrial gases. Gradually, it can replace soy protein, which will bring significant profits to China, which imports soybeans from other countries.

Xue Ming, a researcher at the CAAS feed Institute, said that the production of 10 million tons of new protein will replace the import of 28 million tons of soybeans and help reduce carbon emissions by 250 million tons.

China is the world's largest consumer of feed, so the shortage of its own soybeans, which are a source of feed protein, affects the country's National Food Security. According to the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Chinese livestock breeders annually use 400 million tons of feed, which contains 70 million tons of protein, 60% of which comes from imported soybeans.

The feed Institute said that the new technology is very important for ensuring national food security and development of the country, as it will reduce China's dependence on imported soybeans.

On a protein development project Clostridium autoethanogenum the feed Institute of the people's Republic of China and Beijing Shougang Lanza Tech worked together, which was able to increase the protein yield from carbon monoxide to 85% during 6 years of experiments and introduce industrial application of the method.

The studies used industrial exhaust gases containing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ammonia water as the main raw materials for protein production Clostridium autoethanogenum.

China has independent intellectual property rights to innovative protein, and the technology itself was demonstrated at the exhibition of the country's achievements in the field of scientific and technological innovations in the period 2016-2020, which was held last week in Beijing.