Life Cycle Assessment of Insulin-like Growth factor for Cultivated Meat Production Through Plant Molecular Farming: LCA Foods 2024 abstract

Purpose: The research of growth factors (GFs) production has been dominated by the use of precision fermentation method, albeit with limited economic success. A promising alternative method is this study, the use of plant molecular farming (PMF) technique, with the aid of genetically engineered barley plant as host to express recombinant protein gene for the production of growth factors of interest at a low cost with high scalability. The goal of this study was to assess the environmental performance of insulin-like growth factorIGF-1 LR3 production via vertical and open field farming situated in the Iceland and Canada respectively.

Methods: Attributional life cycle assessment (aLCA) was conducted on a bench-scale production using plant molecular farming method to coproduce IGF-1, barley bran(β-D-glucan) and bioactive soluble phenolic compounds with a functional unit of 1 mg of IGF-1. A total of 3 scenarios were modelled, with consistency in product management methodology (economic and mass allocation) and applied two different energy mix (Iceland and Canada electricity mixes). Sensitivity analysis was also conducted, evaluating the systems response to changes in input and distance applied. LCA calculations were performed using OpenLCA (version 2.1.1) software, with foreground system using inventory data from the literature and start-ups biotech company, as they represent novel processes not readily available in ecoinvent. Environmental impacts were quantified under ReCiPe methodology at the midpoint level, from the ‘Heirarchist’ (H) perspective and Cumulative energy demand (CED).

Results and discussion: The overall global warming impacts ranged from 0.044 to 0.05 kg CO2 eq per mg of IGF-1. We capture most of the uncertainties and sensitivities of the model through the use of high uncertainty ranges and a sensitivity analysis. This increased the robustness of the results across different scenarios.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the road to environmental optimization in plant molecular farming is low-carbon energy source. IGF-1 production through PMF serves as a sustainable replacement for precision fermentation technique with both economic and mass allocation. The sensitivity analysis showed electricity parameter the most sensitive input in the production.