Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[GTman1]

For anyone who wants to know the truth about Bolt Threads productivity and protein yields, I invite you to look at their patent application. Particularly page 30 table 10 and 11. It shows their most promising strains (mechanically) and their corresponding yields.

http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?PageNum=0&docid=20160222174&IDKey=71CFBD6DAC76&HomeUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fappft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO2%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D3%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526co1%3DAND%2526d%3DPG01%2526s1%3Dwidmaier%2526s2%3Dsilk%2526OS%3Dwidmaier%252BAND%252Bsilk%2526RS%3Dwidmaier%252BAND%252Bsilk

Bolts best mechanical strain (which still only has a molecular weight of 135.1 kDA) has a yield of just 8.81 milligrams of protein per Liter per hour. At a very generous 48 hour incubation, that would yield less than half a gram per liter. if you scale that up to a 1000L tank, thats less than half a kilo of usable protein.

Bolts best yield producing strain (which, likely has almost useless mechanical properties considering it has a molecular weight of 29.5 kDa) has a yield of 58.06 milligrams of protein per liter per hour. At a very generous 48 hour incubation period, that would yield 2.8 grams of useless protein per liter. If you scale that up to a 1000L tank, that would be less than 3 kilo's of useless protein per tank, and almost 1 metric ton of wasted fresh water and nutrients.

Now, one of Bolt threads founders recently said that they ferment there protein in silos 20ft wide and almost 5 stories tall, which would make these tanks able to hold roughly 1,500,000 liters. If they are using the best mechanical silk protein, one of these tanks could make almost 700 kilograms of protein and roughly 1.4 million liters, or 370,000 gallons of wasted fresh water and nutrients.

NOT GREEN. NOT SUSTAINABLE. NOT ECONOMICAL

And before anyone says anything about them incresing their protein yields, know this: Protein expression using yeast is not new. It has been done for a long time. Many large biotechs offer that service to anyone willing to pay for it. And they can express almost any protein you want (including spider silk proteins). The process has become about as effecient as it's going to get without some huge scientific breakthrough (which would be very notable).


P.S. Eskaminagaga, this is not directed towards you. I know you are one of the few who have read through the patents.