Chinese biotechnologists, from the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, announced last fall the first (global) laboratory construction of starch from carbon dioxide.
While biotechnologists in the West have focused on artificial proteins, these Chinese counterparts of theirs are dealing with starch, as a basic food ingredient. Physiologically, starch is produced in plants through photosynthesis, and after approximately 60 metabolic reactions.
The biotechnologists of Tianjin designed an artificial anabolic process for starch production that does not exist in nature, using carbon dioxide as a starting point and only 11 basic reactions. The structure of artificial starch is identical to natural starch (declared institute director Ma Yanhe) and the method is 8.5 times more efficient compared to the agricultural, natural process. A bioreactor for artificial starch production the size of one cubic meter (he said) can produce the starch that would result from 3 stremmata of cornfield – but it also needs current (the bioreactor, not the cornfield). This new starch we can therefore also call “electric”…
The method is still in its laboratory phase, and it will take time to enter large-scale commercial application. The consolation is that Chinese biotechnologists found themselves doing something about the carbon dioxide that is tormenting the planet so much.
But they are sadistic. What will become of all this campaign to address “climate change” if it runs out of carbon dioxide?