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.

  • Darkard@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Anything but stop polluting…

    We could cut our carbon emissions? NO, no! This is an opportunity for profits! We can use this to squeeze just that bit more money out of people and it sets us up nicely to replace real butter when the total collapse of the ecosystem means that real dairy becomes an impossible luxury.

    So, how’s that work on bread made from sand coming along?

    • Venat0r@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Replacing a large amount of agriculture, which produces a lot of emissions, could potentially cut emissions.

      • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        The last step in the process is being glossed over, where they mention the final ingredient is glycerol. Google says the primary ways we get glycerol is from plants, animals, or good ol oil. They specifically say this doesn’t use plant or animal products, so I’m left assuming this entire process hinges on ‘drill baby drill’

    • gigachad@piefed.social
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      19 hours ago

      I just read an article about scientists researching how to darken parts of the the sun to fight climate change lol

      • scintilla@crust.piefed.social
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        19 hours ago

        We are past the point of runaway. Even if stopped all greenhouse gasses from being added today would still get hotter. We need solutions to allow us to survive that time.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      19 hours ago

      I’m pretty sure the point is to reduce reliance on diary products and therefore livestock farming, a major source of global warming.