The field, named.

Finland · Demonstration factory

Makes Solein, a microbial protein, from hydrogen, CO₂ pulled from the air, and nutrients including renewable ammonia. Co-founder Pasi Vainikka told New Scientist the process had scaled to almost five times the early expectation. The company is aiming for a plant of about 6,400 tonnes a year, at a production cost of a few dollars per kilogram.

University of Copenhagen · Research consortium

Led in the reporting by Remko Boom. Acetate from CO₂ electrolysis dissolves in water, unlike hydrogen, so microbes can actually get hold of it and grow faster. Boom’s view: this can decouple a serious share of protein from land — and no single route will do the whole job.

University of California, Riverside · Spin-out

Robert Jinkerson’s group showed a sunlight → acetate → yeast path almost 18 times as efficient as ordinary farming, and nearly four times for algae. With further work, plant production itself might rise about tenfold. Nolux is the spin-out developing plants that can live on acetate.

United States · Start-up

Converts syngas — hydrogen and carbon monoxide — into edible fats. A narrow product, and a useful one: fat is where a lot of dietary energy sits, and it does not have to come from an oil crop.

United States · factory in China · About 20,000 tonnes a year

Gas fermentation at commercial scale, reported at roughly 20,000 tonnes a year from a factory in China. Proof that tanks of microbes can leave the pilot plant. The feedstock story still has to become renewable.

Denmark · plant in Saudi Arabia · Plant under construction

Building toward about 50,000 tonnes a year. Another marker that single-cell protein is an industrial process now, not a paper.

Norway · 1999–2005 · historical

Produced 110,000 tonnes of microbial protein from methane for fish feed, then stopped. The useful lesson is the one New Scientist draws: gas fermentation has already been scaled, and it was not a fantasy of the 2020s.

Reported 2026 · Gas fermentation

Named alongside Air Protein and Aerbio as part of the hydrogen and gas-fermentation cohort racing the same basic idea: electricity in, protein out, almost no field.

Reported 2026 · Gas fermentation

Part of the group making food from gases rather than acreage. The shared constraint is renewable power, not a shortage of bacteria.

Reported 2026 · Gas fermentation

Grouped by New Scientist with the companies fermenting gases into edible biomass. Different brands, one thermodynamic bet.