Dr Juha-Pekka Pitkänen
Dr Juha-Pekka Pitkänen is one of the founders of Solar Foods and Chief Scientific Officer since 2018. He graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology (now part of Aalto University) with a Master of Science in chemical engineering in 2000 and a Doctor of Engineering in 2005 majoring in bioprocess technology. He has over 20 years of experience in biotechnology R&D, mostly from VTT. In between his working period at VTT, Pitkänen spent six years in the biotechnology startup Medicel Oy in the early 2000s. During this period, he also became interested in equipment building for the needs of biotechnology. Pitkänen tested the functionality of the technology used as the basis of Solar Foods during his time at VTT on a laboratory scale, together with his colleagues. Inspired by these results, Pitkänen and Pasi Vainikka decided to establish Solar Foods.
Contact info
- Website:
- https://solarfoods.com/
ArticleRebuilding food from air: how Solar Foods is scaling a new production system
From laboratory concept to commercial production, Solar Foods is developing a radically different route to protein built on energy, microbiology and gas fermentation rather than traditional agriculture. New Food Deputy Editor Ben Cornwell speaks to Dr Juha-Pekka Pitkänen about the technical, regulatory and industrial realities of scaling an entirely new way of producing food.