Global meat consumption has tripled in the last 50 years and is increasing at a steady rate due to increases in population, wealth, and the nutrition management. Such meat demands cannot be sustainably met with current conventional livestock farming, which has a substantial impact on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption. Cultivated meat is a rapidly growing technology that offers meat products by proliferating and differentiating animal stem cells in large bioreactors, bypassing conventional farming. While many companies are working in this area, there is a lack of existing infrastructure and experience at required scales for commercialization resulting in many technical bottlenecks such as unconventionally large bioreactors for animal cell cultivation and high media costs. In this study, we are designing a cultivated beef production facility with the goal of producing 100,000 metric tons of cultured beef per year or ~0.14% of the annual global beef production. Using the computer-aided process design software, SuperPro Designer®, we are modelling the facility to create a comprehensive techno-economic analysis to identify areas that can lower the cost of such a production system and allow cultivated meat products to be competitive and to assess the environmental footprint and sustainability of the facility. A base case scenario is modelled in which stem cells proliferate in an efficient seed train and in large production bioreactors of at least 20,000 L operating in fed-batch mode. The model outputs will delineate potential paths of making a more technically and economically feasible facility. Economic outputs will include capital costs (CAPEX), operating costs (OPEX), and cost of goods sold (GOGS). An environmental assessment will also be conducted to ensure a minimal environmental footprint, especially considering water usage, consumables, power consumption, and emissions. We present a tunable model that is available in the public domain to test different designs and assumptions, advancing the community knowledge and facilitating commercialization.

Design and techno-economic analysis of a cultivated meat facility

ACS Spring 2022

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