GAIA-PRO

Gas-to-Food for an Innovative and Advanced Circular Bioeconomy Production of Renewable Outputs from Waste Gases

01/01/2026 to 31/12/2028

By 2050, global protein demand is expected to increase by over 70%, with serious consequences for land use, water resources, and the climate. Conventional livestock farming already accounts for around 30% of global arable land and causes around 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Single-cell protein (SCP) is a promising approach to reducing the pressure on conventional agriculture—microbial biomass that is rich in protein and nutrients and can be produced independently of agricultural land. Currently, the majority of SCP production is based on sugar or fossil fuel-based processes, which leads to high CO2 emissions and competes with food production.

The GAIA-PRO project addresses these challenges by tapping into previously unused waste-based gas streams, in particular biogas from anaerobic digestion and synthesis gas from sewage sludge gasification, for microbial protein production. These carbon-rich gases are renewable, locally available, and largely unused to date. GAIA-PRO is establishing a modular biotechnology platform that integrates aerobic and anaerobic processes to convert previously emitted CO2 into SCP with almost complete carbon recovery.