Turning food waste into carbon captors

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https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2026/06/turning-food-waste-into-carbon-captors.html

The removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere is considered an important tool in the fight against climate change – but has so far been an energy-intensive and expensive process. Now, researchers have developed a new method that efficiently binds carbon dioxide and releases it again using only a small amount of energy. The starting materials are provided by waste products from dairy and soy processing.

11.06.2026 by Samuel Schlaefli, freelance author


Whey from the food industry serves as a raw material for the new CO₂ capture technology (Image created with AI: Adobe Stock / Montage ETH Zurich)

In brief

• Researchers have presented a new direct air capture (DAC) method for separating CO₂ from the air.


• Their technique uses food waste from cheese and tofu production, which is processed into protein beads.


• The capture and isolation of CO₂ uses less energy than in conventional processes and is therefore expected to be more cost-effective.

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Although the researchers are yet to make an exact calculation of the costs per captured tonne of CO₂, Mezzenga expects them to be significantly lower than with conventional DAC. “Our technology is cheaper and more sustainable because it requires little energy and is based on a widely available waste product,” he says. “That could be a game changer for the future of removing CO₂ from the air.”

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Z. Dong,M. Dai,F. Donat,D. Richert,B. Dai,P.P. Ziemiański,J. Zhou,M. Radiom,M. Peydayesh,Y. Li,X. Li,H. Wu,C.R. Müller,W. Chen, & R. Mezzenga, Circular and athermal atmospheric CO₂ capture by food waste-derived amyloid sorbents, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 123 (24) e2535689123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2535689123 (2026).