International Consortium to transform CO₂ into food

Scientists from the Department of Food and Resource Economics join international effort to turn CO₂ into food for the second phase of The Acetate Consortium initiative.
[Translate to English:] Professor Wusheng Yu, Professor Mette Termansen, adjunkt Francesco Clora og adjunkt Zhan Wang repræsenterer IFRO som ny partner i The Acetate Consortium.
[Translate to English:] Professor Wusheng Yu, Professor Mette Termansen, adjunkt Francesco Clora og adjunkt Zhan Wang repræsenterer IFRO som ny partner i The Acetate Consortium.

A new grant of up to DKK 162.2 million from the Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation will support the next phase of an international research consortium aiming to develop food prototypes based on CO₂ as a raw material.

The Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO) at the University of Copenhagen has joined the project in the second phase. Professor Wusheng Yu, Assistant Professors Zhan Wang and Francesco Clora, and Professor Mette Termansen are among the key researchers contributing to the project.

Acetate instead of sugar in fermentation

Key results from phase one

  • Development of microbial strains that grow on 100 percent acetate and contain more than 40 percent protein
  • Completion of pilot facilities at Aarhus University for acetate production modules
  • Identification of key cost drivers including electricity and infrastructure.

Since 2023, the Acetate Consortium has been working on a novel approach to food production that replaces sugar in fermentation processes with acetate (a substance already present in the metabolism of the microorganisms used for fermentation), derived from CO₂.

The long-term vision is to address food insecurity and climate change while limiting the pressure on land and water resources for agricultural and food production.

Scaling technology is the next step

In the second phase, the consortium will scale the technology and develop food prototypes for consumer testing.

Researchers at IFRO, in collaboration with other consortium members, will calibrate the new technology in a global macroeconomic model, develop and quantify possible adoption pathways, and analyse potential economic and environmental impacts at local and global scales.

“We are very excited about this opportunity to strengthen IFRO’s research capability in integrated environmental-economic modelling while also contributing to highly relevant societal debates on alternative sustainability pathways”, says Professor Mette Termansen.

Close collaboration across sectors is key

Funding

Denmark’s strong tradition of collaboration between research and industry in food production and biosolutions provides a solid foundation for translating new technologies into tangible products.

The total grant of DKK 162.2 million (€21.7 million) covers a renewed two-year period from 2025 to 2027, split evenly between Gates Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the latter funding IFRO’s participation.

“The strong consortium increases the innovation potential of the project, and I am very excited to be able to reenforce the analysis of the potential economic impacts of new technological developments in the agri-food sector”, says Professor Wusheng Yu.

Bypassing sugar to save land and water use

The Acetate Consortium has developed an integrated platform that converts CO₂ into acetate, which is then used to ferment single-cell and precision proteins. This method eliminates the need for sugar in fermentation which in turn significantly reduces land and water use.

Consortium partners

  • Topsoe
  • Novonesis
  • Orkla Foods
  • Spora ApS
  • Novo Nordisk Foundation CO₂ Research Center (CORC)
  • Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Aarhus University
  • Department of Food Science (FOOD), University of Copenhagen
  • Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), University of Copenhagen
  • Northwestern University (USA)
  • Copenhagen Process

Contact