Browsing by Author "Autiovirta, Henri"

Cellular agriculture (CA) utilizes cells to produce alternatives for conventional animal or plant-based foods. Concepts for CA are available, but their feasibility for large scale production is not yet well documented. The aim of this work was to compare CA and conventional milk chain in terms of energy demand. Enzyme production was included to the analysis as a benchmark to precision fermentation. In the life cycle analysis (LCA), life cycle inventory was compiled from scientific literature for CA and enzyme production. Inventory data for milk powder production was taken from Valio Carbo Calculator. A functional unit of 1 kg protein was applied. Cumulative energy demand for each product was re-calculated applying a cradle-to-gate system boundary. Background data was compiled from Ecoinvent and Agri-footprint databases and analyzed with OpenLCA. Milk protein in general has lower requirement in non-renewable and renewable CED than CA alternatives. Main contributors to CED in CA were electricity, thermal energy, carbon source and in some scenarios cleaning-in-place (CIP). CED values were 185 MJ/FU, 179 MJ/FU – 1007 MJ/FU and 410 MJ/FU – 166 385 MJ/FU for milk protein production, CA, and enzyme production, respectively. Moreover, enzyme production revealed that CED of CA has potential to have much higher values than reported on CA production. In the future, studies with continuous fermentation utilizing different by-products and including more impact factors should be pursued.