In California, startup company NovoNutrients is making fish feed from carbon dioxide in order to keep up with the growing global demand for fish. They proved it works in a lab and are now scaling it up while also developing new microbes using synthetic biology to produce specific nutrients that can be used as feed ingredients. NovoNutrients uses the free and abundant feedstock carbon dioxide to feed the microbes that then become protein.
David Tze, CEO of NovoNutrients told Fast Company, “We can take untreated flue gas from various industrial emissions…and just pipe it into our plant, rather than putting it in the atmosphere.”
NovoNutrients believes the same process could eventually be used to make livestock feed, pet food, or even synthetic meat for human consumption, but the current high demand in aquaculture makes that industry their priority for now.