Immigrating to Mars, you can eat enough by drinking northwest wind.

Remember the 20 15 sci-fi blockbuster "Mars Rescue"?

In the film, this man was accidentally left in outer space. In order to survive, he had to grow potatoes on Mars.

This heinous plot also reveals that cooking in space is still a big problem. Is there any other way besides growing potatoes? You know, the most on Mars is carbon dioxide, accounting for 96%. If we can collect carbon dioxide to solve the problem of food and clothing, it is simply a super granary.

With the discovery of a new technology, these ideals may really come true. In the future, life on Mars will no longer need bitter potatoes, and human space exploration will no longer be restricted by food.

On September 24th, Ma Yanhe of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his team realized the first synthetic starch with carbon dioxide. Related research results were published in the latest issue of Science, titled "Starch Synthesis from Carbon Dioxide by Cell-free Chemical Enzymes", and were reported by Xinhua News Agency and Science and Technology Daily.

Boy, if carbon dioxide is directly turned into starch and then rounded off, can air be directly turned into dinner? How is this amazing new technology realized?

0 1

What did the researcher do?

Starch is not only the most important component of grain, but also an important industrial raw material. As a polymer carbohydrate, its synthesis and accumulation process is actually quite complicated, involving more than 60 metabolic reactions and subtle physiological adjustments.

In order to realize the artificial synthesis of starch, the research team of Chinese Academy of Sciences designed the reaction chain from scratch, and realized the full synthesis of starch molecules by carbon dioxide for the first time in the laboratory.

In terms of steps, the researchers redesigned a path, which only needs 1 1 steps to synthesize starch artificially from carbon dioxide.

In terms of efficiency, the conversion rate of solar energy into starch is 7%, which is 3.5 times that of natural synthetic starch.

As far as the synthesis speed is concerned, it only takes about 4 hours in the laboratory, while it takes several months in nature.

Most importantly, it does not need photosynthesis, and it is completely synthesized by industry/laboratory, which will enable us to produce starch in the future like industrial fermentation to produce beer.

02

Future application direction

What is the impact on the future and how important is it to break through the technology of synthesizing starch from carbon dioxide?

The first is the influence of food.

Ma Yanhe said that this achievement made it possible to change the traditional agricultural planting mode of starch production to the industrial workshop production mode.

Through the efforts of researchers, the starch synthesis rate of the final version reached about 8.5 times that of corn. Theoretically, 1 m3 bioreactor can produce starch equivalent to the annual output of five acres of corn fields. To a great extent, it may even fundamentally solve the food problem that plagues people.

Secondly, it is the environmental impact.

If the process cost of the system can be reduced to be economical and feasible compared with agricultural planting in the future, it will be possible to save more than 90% of cultivated land and fresh water resources, avoid the negative impact of pesticides and fertilizers on the environment, and improve the level of human food security.

In addition, this technology provides a new recovery scheme for carbon capture, utilization and storage. Let the carbon emitted in the air return to the cycle of production and life, realize the recycling of carbon dioxide, greatly promote the development of low-carbon bio-economy, and play a significant supporting role for the global carbon dioxide emission peak and carbon neutrality goal. Environmental protection issues such as "carbon neutrality" will no longer be a problem, and the restrictions on industrial production will be greatly reduced.

03

Can it be put into practical use?

So, the technology described above is so multifunctional, can air be used to make food now? Does it mean that we can directly use air to make food and industrial raw materials without relying on farming, and truly realize the "Northwest Wind Foot"?

It's too early to say this. As the initial result of laboratory output, scientists need to optimize and popularize this technology continuously in order to get it out of the laboratory and put it into practical application. There is still a long way to go to realize the industrial production of starch with carbon dioxide as raw material.

Of course, as a breakthrough from 0 to 1, this means that as long as you stick to this road.

One day, we will complete the industrialized production of starch, no longer rely on a lot of land for farming, and truly move from farming civilization to a higher stage of civilization.

I believe that with the unremitting efforts of researchers, the future "starch production factory" is not far away.

References:

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