Here’s How Merck KGaA is Offsetting Its Environmental Impact With an Innovative Food Generator
It’s no secret that the world is teetering on the edge of a full-blown climate disaster and responsible brands all over the world are devoting considerable time and resources to trying to produce innovative solutions to their own environmental impact.
The global logistics business has a bit more responsibility in this regard. The business of moving products from one side of the world to another – no matter how essential those products may be – will have an impact on the environment. The burning of fuel, disposing of waste, and more are going to cause some harm to the surrounding ecosystem.
This is especially true for the chemical industry which deals with harmful substances and plastics as part of its daily business. Thankfully, some brands are looking to tackle these issues and search for ways to use their expertise to offer solutions for some of the planet’s other issues as well.
Merck KGaA
Since 2019, division of chemical giant, Merck Group, Merck KGaA has been driving innovation in the arenas of health, nutrition, and most relevant to the industry, energy. The annual Future Insight Prize offers a grant of up to €1 million to support research into ground-breaking science and modern technologies.
With the world population set to hit ten billion by 2050 and 690m people going hungry every day, the winners of this year’s prize wanted to use chemical and logistics expertise to create a solution for world hunger.
Dr. Ting Lu of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Dr. Stephen Techtmann of Michigan Technological University have developed a method for transforming inedible biomass – such as certain plants and the unpalatable parts of foodstuffs such as fat and rind, also known as lignocellulosic waste – into safe, nutritious, and most importantly, edible food.
The Food Generator is powered by intricate communities of microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, which are able to digest the waste products and metabolize them into the end product.
Before anyone gets too excited at the prospect of a Star Trek-esque machine capable of producing any meal at the touch of a button, the Food Generator’s output isn’t particularly appetising or even tasty but could be deployed in areas of the world where famine is rife, or a disaster event has temporarily destroyed food supply chains in the region.
“Using the Future Insight Prize research grant, [Dr. Lu and Dr. Techtmann] will build on the work they're already doing to create combinations of natural and engineered microbes that can efficiently turn waste materials into food,” said Merck KGaA in a press release. “While bacterial biomass is itself upwards of 50% protein and contains many essential nutrients, the researchers are developing microbial communities that can enrich this with additives such as amino acids, polyunsaturated fats and vitamins.”
Plastics
Another field of study for Dr. Lu and Dr. Techtmann and funded by Merck KGaA will be using the same technique – albeit with different communities – to break down plastics into strings of protein.
Plastic pollution is a huge problem for the chemical logistics business and a solution is sorely needed. The slow growth rates of these microbes have historically limited their use, but Lu and Techtmann are engineering depolymerization enzymes to be more efficient, improving the ability of microbes to break down harmful PET. Future plans will see the pair expand that research to cover even more types of plastics.
“We create 300 million tons of plastic waste each year, with between 8 and 13 million tons ending up in the oceans,” added Merck KGaA. “Only 9% of all plastic society has ever produced has been recycled, with 79% dumped into landfills and the environment. Many plastics can take centuries to degrade, and that process creates micro-plastics that are often ingested by fish, invading the broader food chain to eventually be consumed by us as well.”
Final Thoughts
The chemical logistics industry needs to work to tackle the oceans crisis, climate change, and the many other challenges facing humanity today. The combination of chemistry and logistics are perfectly placed to develop innovative solutions to chemical-based problems and make sure they are delivered to the parts of the world where they are truly needed.
Inspiring and investing in some of the world’s most innovative thinkers is a fantastic way to contribute towards this mission, with innovations such as the Future Insight Prize serving to drag these ideas off the whiteboard and into reality.
Working to address the chemical logistics industry’s impact on the environment is sure to be part of the conversation at LogiChem 2022, being held in March at De Doelen ICC Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Download the agenda today for more information and insights.