CARBONDALE, Ill. — Talk about an out-of-this-world idea! A team of researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale has developed the technology to turn biomass and plastic waste into food.
It's called µBites (pronounced "microbites").
µBites breaks down plastics, without creating toxic chemicals or carbon streams, and turns the waste into a slurry. This is done through something called 'oxidative hydrothermal dissolution.'
The technology for OHD was invented by another SIU researcher, Ken Anderson, a decade ago. All biowaste and plastic are carbon-based. Knowing this, OHD uses water, heat, pressure and oxygen to break biomass and plastic wastes into water-soluble carbon molecules, which is the aforementioned slurry.
That slurry is then fed to hungry yeast strains. The yeast loves the OHD-processed carbon and quickly results in yeast protein. That protein can be blended with additional food additives for different smells, tastes and textures, which can then be used to feed humans and animals.
For the final steps, the yeast protein is put through a 3D printer and formed into things we might recognize, such as cookies.
Recently, µBites cookies were put through a taste test at SIU's Fermentation Science Institute, which routinely conducts such trials on fermented food and drinks.
The cookies scored 6.5 out of 9 on the Hedonic scale, which is the most widely used measure of food acceptability. The highest-scoring category was the cookies' aroma, scoring a mean of 7.33. The cookies also scored higher than 5 for color, shape and texture.
“To our knowledge, this is the first-ever, demonstrably safe-to-eat cookie with a Hedonic scale score greater than 6.5 from repurposed waste biomass and plastic,” lead researcher Lahiru Jayakody, assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the Fermentation Science Institute at SIU, said.
The team behind this 3D-printed food is using a $25,000 grant from NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge, which challenged teams across the country to create new food technologies capable of feeding astronauts on long voyages.
However, the benefits from µBites could also be felt on Earth.
“µBites is a transformative technology for treating world hunger and plastic pollution, creating a sustainable world for future generations,” Jayakody said.
The µBites system uses minimal amounts of water and doesn't need much human involvement or space for operation. The design also allows for verifications within the food's nutrient composition, so the recipes could be changed to fit the specific needs of different populations with cultural and culinary diversity.
It also cuts back on plastic waste accumulation while additionally reducing the need for more carbon sources.
As climate change becomes more severe and food insecurity affects millions of people across the globe, Jayakody says µBites offers a solution.
“µBites can provide food in extreme environments and resource-scarce regions,” Jayakody said. “For example, it could be installed on naval ships, especially submarines or put in remote locations such as the Arctic and Antarctic, where it would provide a reliable food source when weather conditions prevent resupply runs by plane or boat.”
One of the main challenges remaining for the team is getting consumers to accept waste-derived foods. There's also the issue of enacting policies aimed at transitioning the public to novel, sustainable diets.
You can read more about the SIU team's progress in the Cell Press journal Trends in Biotechnology.
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