- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
A California-based biotechnology startup has officially launched the world’s first commercially available butter made entirely from carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen, eliminating the need for traditional agriculture or animal farming. Savor, backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates through his Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, announced the commercial release of its animal- and plant-free butter after three years of development.
The revolutionary product uses a proprietary thermochemical process that transforms carbon dioxide captured from the air, hydrogen from water, and methane into fat molecules chemically identical to those found in dairy butter. According to the company, the process creates fatty acids by heating these gases under controlled temperature and pressure conditions, then combining them with glycerol to form triglycerides.
On first pass landfill doesn’t sound that bad. But that’s after burning… Alas.
Even if it gets put in s landfill without burning, it will rott and the carbon reaches the atmosphere as CO2 or methane (much worse).
I find myself very curious about the amount of carbon left after burning (presumably the char doesn’t rot so much?). Trying to look it up also turned up this:
https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/04/11/to-more-effectively-sequester-biomass-and-carbon-just-add-salt/
(Clearly over-optimistic reporting of a researcher; but conceptually satisfying.) Perhaps if we have enough salted butter go to waste…