The Science of Alt Protein, Electroproteins : How single-cell proteins are made from electricity
Dr. Lutz Grossmann
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Webinar description
Food proteins have conventionally been sourced through traditional agricultural methods. While cellular agriculture presents the benefit of requiring minimal land, certain processes within it still depend on glucose derived from starch-containing crops. Gas fermentation, however, offers a promising alternative, eliminating the need for any agricultural inputs.
Notably, hydrogen fermentation stands out as a distinctive technology that converts electricity into hydrogen, ultimately transforming it into a rich, edible protein biomass. In this presentation, Dr. Lutz Grossmann of the University of Massachusetts Amherst will share insights into the current state of hydrogen fermentation and showcase the progress he and his team have made in developing the necessary bioreactor setup.
Meet the speaker
Dr. Lutz Grossmann
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF FOOD SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
Lutz Grossmann has been an Assistant Professor in the Food Science Department at UMass Amherst since 2021. He graduated with a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Hohenheim in Germany. His research focuses on facilitating a sustainable food system transition by designing holistic approaches to increase the consumption of plant- and microbial protein-rich foods. He is especially interested in combining up and downstream processing technology with molecular, physicochemical, and engineering concepts to create food textures that are nutritious, sustainable, and tasty. His research was awarded the Nestlé Young Scientist Award (2019), the FOSS Young Talent Award (2023), and the IUFoST Young Researcher Award (2024). He has published 51 peer-reviewed papers, two books, and has an h-index of 19. His laboratory receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, The Foundation for Food and Agriculture, and The Good Food Institute.