NovoNutrients tweaks its bugs to turn CO2 into protein for people and pets

The easiest way for a person to eat carbon dioxide is by consuming vegetables. David Tze wants his startup’s protein to be a close second.

Tze’s company, NovoNutrients, has been working on a way to use microbes to turn carbon dioxide into protein that can be used in food for humans and feed for animals. Now, Tze said the startup is working toward building a pilot plant in the San Francisco Bay Area that will produce protein for companies looking for alternative sources. 

To support the construction, NovoNutrients has raised an $18 million Series A round from investors, including Woodside Energy, an Australian energy company, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The final tally includes $3 million that Woodside pledged last year.

NovoNutrients spent the last year preparing for its pilot plant, Tze said, including refining its bioreactor design. Once complete, the pilot will use much of the same equipment as a future commercial scale plant, making it an important proving ground for its designs and microbial strains.

NovoNutrients uses fermentation like other companies that turn carbon dioxide into more complex molecules. But unlike many of its competitors, it’s not using a big tank that resembles what you might see in a brewery. Instead, NovoNutrients employs thinner cylinders that are looped, which Tze said helps lower the amount of energy needed to mix the gases.

To produce those proteins, the company tailors the strains of microbes to digest waste streams with different gas mixes. For some products, the company can use synthetic biology techniques to improve the microbes’ stability and efficiency. But for natural products, Tze said, NovoNutrients uses evolution and gives it a boost. “Our most relevant strain development is actually the fact that we are able to tailor the strains through natural, non-GMO means to the specific mixed gases that will be available at a particular partner site,” he said.

NovoNutrients plans to make most of its money not by building and operating commercial-scale plants, but by selling microbes along with the licenses to build, operate and maintain the facilities. “We would also do marketing and business development for the products,” Tze said.