- 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.
I assume we sequester it when we poop? I don’t know what we do with human waste sludge. And I’m not sure I’m brave enough to google for myself.
We breathe most out all day long. Just note that direct human emissions are irrelevant.
We have bacteria break it down to create biogas, wich we burn for energy, and sludge wich we burn and put the ashes in landfills or back on the fields as fertilizer.
You can rest assured that all the carbon makes it to the atmosphere, one way or another.
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…