Fernández-Ríos, Ana; Butnar, Isabela; Laso, Jara; Borrion, Aiduan; Aldaco, Rubén; Margallo, Maria; (2024) Applying negative emissions technologies in the ‘superfoods’ sector: How far are we from achieving a carbon neutral spirulina production? Presented at: Foods 2024. The 5th International Electronic Conference on Foods: The Future of Technology, Sustainability, and Nutrition in the Food Domain, Online conference.

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Abstract

Environmental degradation is one of the biggest challenges of our times, with negative influence in society by stressing food and forestry systems. However, these negative effects are reciprocal, as around 50% of food is produced under conditions transgressing some planetary boundaries. As consequence, new opportunities for food supply chain stakeholders are underway around the world, among the development of alternative nutrient sources and implementation of carbon removal technologies highlight as mitigation pathways compliant with the carbon neutrality targets. This study seeks to prove the effectiveness through carbon accounting and carbon footprint (CF) of two carbon capture and utilization techniques in the production of spirulina, an increasingly known and consumed ‘superfood’. Spirulina is considered an important CO2 consumer and in its industrial production this supply is made by means of synthetic CO2. Two scenarios that aim to reduce the associated burdens are compared: (i) use of CO2 recovered from the fermentation of beer (SP_BRW), and (ii) use of CO2 from a direct air carbon capture unit (SP_DACC). The results show that both scenarios present a better environmental performance than the current production. The CFs are estimated at 1.03 tons and 1.37 tons CO2 eq./year for the SP_BRW and SP_DACC scenarios, respectively. In accordance, the carbon accounting confirms that only CO2 emissions can be reduced compared with the business as usual scenario by up to 51.1% by using residual emissions from breweries and 47% by capturing CO2 from air. These findings provide a starting point in developing a robust and transparent carbon accounting that verifies the efficiency of carbon removal in food systems, and particularly in the ‘superfood’ sector. Future challenges focus on technical feasibility, in terms of technology readiness level and implementation, as well as economic feasibility, since their actual application, especially of the DACC, would require a significant investment.

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