Farmed Tilapia. Photo courtesy of ZME Science
Turning leaked methane into fishmeal would turn a profit while helping the environment. The issue of methane pollution might become an asset in the future, thanks to new technology that can transform this potent greenhouse gas into fish food.
Approaches to converting methane into fishmeal have already been developed, the authors note, but the economic uncertainty during the pandemic has prevented its use to promote food security on any meaningful scale. The new study analyzes the method’s economic viability today. The main takeaway of the research is that methane-to-fishmeal conversion is economically feasible for certain sources of the gas and that other sources can be made profitable with certain improvements.
The approach can also be of quite significant help against climate change, the team adds, and is capable of meeting all the global demand for fishmeal, further reducing the strain we’re placing on natural ecosystems.
“Industrial sources in the U.S. are emitting a truly staggering amount of methane, which is uneconomical to capture and use with current applications. Our goal is to flip that paradigm, using biotechnology to create a high-value product.”
Read “Displacing fishmeal with protein derived from stranded methane” published in Nature Sustainability.