String Bio: Making sustainability market relevant

The Opportunity

With climate commitments and action plans coming out of COP26, there is now a broad consensus that effectively addressing climate change will require a complete transition to a low carbon economy. While the challenge ahead is significant, investing in clean technology brings enormous opportunities to boost sustainable growth and address the growing risks associated with climate change. About a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions are traceable to the food supply chain. In India, agriculture accounts for 19.6 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions which primarily include the livestock sector (54.6 per cent) in the form of methane emissions due to enteric fermentation and use of nitrogenous fertilizers in agricultural soils (19 per cent) which emit nitrous oxides. Addressing methane emissions will need to be a critical part of the climate strategy given the high global warming potential of methane. Even though carbon dioxide has a longer-lasting effect, methane sets the pace for warming in the near term as it traps very large quantities of heat. The levels of methane were ~800 parts per billion (ppb) during 1850 and has reached more than 1800 ppb today. As a result of this, methane is responsible for about 30% of the observed 1.1°C of global warming. Effective strategies to reduce/reuse/recycle methane could even buy us time to reach net zero emissions globally.

String Bio’s USP lies in the fact that it is the only Asian company with a patent protected platform for methane bioconversion which enables the creation of carbon friendly products using GHG as raw material. These products, ranging from proteins to agriculture inputs, have significant performance differentiators enabling an easier transition to a low carbon economy and sustainable manufacturing.

String Bio’s Green Products

Market demand for clean, traceable and sustainable solutions is at an inflection point – the alternative protein industry is projected to grow to a $350 Billion USD market by 2035, the biological crop inputs market is projected for an 15% CAGR growth over next 10 years and consumer surveys show that for the first time the Asian consumer is choosing value but with sustainability. With its patented technology platform, String has enabled alternative proteins, crop inputs, cosmetic ingredients and other value-added ingredients for emerging markets, all manufactured using methane (from biogas or natural gas) as its primary input.

While PRO-DG®, String’s alternative protein product for animal nutrition, increases FCR by 26% in shrimp, Impakt®, String’s crop input, increases crop yield by up to 40% under conditions of abiotic stress. This validation data is based on more than 2 years of customer/partner testing of products manufactured from String’s own multi-purpose gas fermentation plant. String is currently in discussions with global alternative food companies, agro chemicals and feed manufacturers for distribution of its products and scaling up production.

Transition to a low carbon economy

Led by a team of innovators and scientists, String Bio’s product development focus has been to design products that are a) manufactured from GHG, b) with significant performance differentiators over existing products and c) that are economically viable. This will be key for transitioning to a low carbon economy. String Bio’s range of environment-friendly solutions for human nutrition, animal nutrition and valuable crop inputs are built on this fundamental principle. Below is highlighted a specific use case for one agriculture crop input product, CleanRise™.

Harnessing the Asia opportunity

Rice is the dominating cereal crop in Asia with more than 90 per cent of the world's rice occupying 140 million hectares located in the continent. It also means that Asia is responsible for large scale methane emissions from this crop production. Rice production contributes to around 10-13% percent of annual methane emissions and its total GHG output puts it on a par with international aviation. String’s agricultural input, CleanRise™ has demonstrated yield increases of up to 40 per cent from field trials across a variety of crops. In rice, there are even more marked and significant results: Use of CleanRise results in a 33% increase in grain yield in treated crops. In addition, use of CleanRise decreases methane and nitrous oxide emissions upto 60 per cent and 40 per cent respectively over untreated crops. This results in a disruptive solution that not only increases rice yield and RoI for farmer but also reduces GHG emission from agriculture. For example, use of this solution in ~10% of global paddy fields can help us achieve 23% of the COP 26 per annum methane reduction target and use in ~50% of global paddy fields can help us over-shoot this target (See graphic).

This path breaking technology can disrupt the way agriculture contributes to GHG emissions globally and at the same time, increase sustainability and yield for all stakeholders involved in the process. Such solutions are critical to make sustainability market-relevant and to enable faster and smoother transition to a low carbon economy globally.