Culturing yeast is fairly simple but yeast feeds of sugar and do not create it themselves. It is similar to the issue with biofuels.
Yes agreed in remote areas where crops can’t be grown it is an option that can and will be able to impact and save lives. Maybe in the future, we will not be able to grow fields due to overpopulation conflicting land and space usage. It is an option and a tool to aid in the supply but with all technology be very weary of Pandorabox.
Long term consequences and short term results do not always match up as planned.
That’s not my point. I know well enough that a molecule is a molecule no matter where it comes from. My question is about the efficiencies of the process. Hemp and yeast for this purpose are not even the same trophic level. Hemp you grow in the field then extract and it is making the CBD from sunlight in high yields. With the yeast route you need to grow that same field of corn to feed the yeast; process corn into sugar solution; grow yeast; extract yeast. Is it going to convert 100% of the weight of sugar it’s fed into CBD? No.
The claim that this process is more efficient or cost effective is purely based on the fact that hemp is very overpriced currently. Cost to buy a pound of corn mulch is probably a thousand times cheaper. So in the present paradigm that would be correct; that’s just economy of scale. If hemp fiber or hempseed oil or some other application gets investment to be grown industrial style then the price for hemp would tank completely and this process would not be looking as good. Biomass cost already makes up like 95% of the expenditure of large scale extractors.
I agree with “Magchemistry” on his point of energy demands for yeast production.
Yeast production is not practical to upscale at the moment because of these additional points:-
1.) efficiency is not there as yet
2.) upscaling needed maybe in future generations of yeast that are more productive
3.) cost associated with this production vs legal production and by products from traditional grown hemp has more revenue streams. Each biomolecules is a market and can be extracted, biomass is a fuel after extraction or feed , etc. yeast yields only the selected biomolecule and yeast.
Benefits are:-
yeast can be easier upscale for a GMP production as it easier to remove a contaminated batch in closed chamber verses a plant in a large room for GMP.
compared to cannabis itself for breeding many generations can pass in a short time. Breeding possibilities of more efficient yeast is possible
Areas like the artic belt would be able to localize production for a fraction of the cost of logistics.
4.) if efficiency can be achieved that the yeast requires less sugars to produce more molecules. Production per square meter could be stacked and used to test pinpoint molecules. This would help us better understand the plant itself.
yeast and plants change with environmental influences. These can be made constant in a lab. Yeast has different abiotic and biotic threats and factors. Plants have many and they can change rapidly while the plant reproductive cycle might not be able to adapt in the same speed as the plant.
6.) possible reduction of extraction cost
Currently CBD strains are improving both in the ratios and terpes. This is due to breeding if we can get closer to what we have accomplished with thc strains like “the future “ the price of starting material will level out eventually.
My bet will be base material will level out like coffee and recipes for personal use , preferences and recipes of blends of strains much like coffee. CBD breeders are in demand at the moment to increase the ratio of biomolecules in plants on selected criteria.
Yeah, most bench-scale science doesn’t scale up well initially. But give it a couple of years, a few million dollars, and some high paid engineering talent, and I believe it’ll be the more cost effective method of production for the majority of cannabinoids. Or maybe it will never take off because of some unforeseen technical hurdle, nobody really knows at this point.
@Raindust has definitely raised some interesting points!
Apparently a company called Amyris is now producing CBG at ton scale using yeast. Only 9 months of development! They’ve already produced 10 products on their fermentation platform. @cyclopath has had the right idea about genetics all along it seems.