HydroSpin
Global meat production is estimated to increase by 85 percent by 2050. Today's factory farming poses ethical and ecological risks. One way of reducing these risks is the in vitro production of meat substitutes. However, cell-based meat is currently limited to unstructured products (minced meat). The consistency and texture of conventional meat (steak) cannot yet be reproduced using existing processes, and one of the major challenges in the production of large-volume tissue constructs is the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cultured cells. Due to the lack of blood supply, this is only guaranteed for a maximum tissue thickness of approx. 200 µm. In addition, the scalability of the relevant production platform for industrial applications must be taken into account. The project will develop a wet spinning process for the production of muscle-like, cell-loaded multifiber structures with embedded hollow fibers. The hollow fibers ensure the oxygen and nutrient supply and thus enable the production of large-volume 3D meat substitutes. The novelty of the artificial meat substitute industry and the technical challenges require a large number of innovations along the entire process chain. Small and medium-sized companies from various sectors (material suppliers, plant manufacturers, automation technology, factory planning and construction, biotechnology, sensor technology) can benefit from this.