this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/34272214

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.

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[–] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

I've heard that people made from carbon taste like the real thing too, you all should try it!

[–] UltraBlack@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

From the description I cannot in a million years assume that it tastes anywhere near butter. And where's the buttery taste going

"Fat molecules chemically identical to those in butter". I'll wait until I hear more third party people try it or I do myself.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Of course not. They've made artificial fat, not butter. BIG difference

water, lecithin as an emulsifier, flavor and color

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You had me in the first half

[–] bigfondue@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Bill is going to be serving this on all his jets and yachts

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Mmmmm. Nom nom!

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Why not just make a fuel that can power cars if you're gonna go this far.

[–] MalMen@masto.pt 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

@MuskyMelon @Gsus4 hydrogen probably.. just need further development, I think we are in a technologic race, battery is still winning but it can change..

[–] tal@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

hydrogen probably.. just need further development

You can get a hydrogen car today. Just that if you're outside a few places like Japan and California, finding a fueling station might be a bit difficult.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Mirai

Sales in Japan began on 15 December 2014 at ¥6.7 million (~US$57,400) at Toyota Store and Toyopet Store locations. The Japanese government plans to support the commercialization of fuel-cell vehicles with a subsidy of ¥2 million (~US$19,600).[12] Retail sales in the U.S. began in August 2015 at a price of US$57,500 before any government incentives. Deliveries to retail customers began in California in October 2015.[13] Toyota scheduled to release the Mirai in the Northeastern United States in the first half of 2016.[14] As of June 2016, the Mirai was available for retail sales in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and Norway.[15] Pricing in Germany started at €60,000 (~US$75,140) plus VAT (€78,540).[16]

https://www.toyota.com/mirai/

2025 Mirai

Starting MSRP $ 51,795

https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/hydrogen-locations#%2Ffind%2Fnearest%3Ffuel=HY

They do fuel up a lot faster than BEVs do, but the fuel cost is considerably higher than for BEVs.

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

cost :/ and low energy conversion efficiency. Whereas expensive novelty edibles may have a high price, fuels, not so much.

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

We focus too much on efficiency and cost sometimes. Sometimes efficiency is only a "nice to have" while being outweighed by practicality, convenience, safety, and any of the other factors we choose to make a priority.

It is expensive and inefficient for an airplane to have two engines instead of just one. We do it anyway because it's required for safety and redundancy. We made that the priority, and that was an active choice. We need to start making more active choices about what the priority is when it comes to our energy futures. All priorities have tradeoffs. Cost and efficiency have their own tradeoffs. Question it when people tell you that things can't be done because of "cost" or "efficiency". When they do that they're presupposing what the priority is, but often it's billionaires trying to cut corners to make themselves richer at our expense, our safety, our futures. We can do inefficient things. Sometimes it's even the right choice.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think you're missing that there are better ways to produce fuels for cars than to chemically synthesize petroleum. It's all about cost and efficiency if you're just looking for portable energy. Or we could burn more coal so we can generate the energy needed for synthetic gasoline....

[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Or we could burn more coal so we can generate the energy needed for synthetic gasoline…

The problem is, people can, do, and will use that exact same argument to say we don't need any more solar panels or wind turbines, because we don't need and can't use or store the excess power for anything and that's why we need to keep thermal plants as backup for base load generation. Look, when we produce too much electricity, the electricity cost goes to zero and negative! It's "wasteful and inefficient"! But these two problems can solve each other. Synthetic fuels (doesn't have to be gasoline, hydrogen is step 1, methane/LNG is a bit more manageable as a chemical fuel. As long as the carbon source is atmospheric, then it and other synthetic hydrocarbons are carbon neutral to burn) provide an on-demand energy sink/storage method that can support and drive more electrification and renewable power, it just has to be part of a consistent and systemic approach with strict regulation and a clear view of the big picture (something sorely lacking these days).

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[–] aramis87@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

Honestly, I'm mostly wondering about the nutrition factor. Not that you expect much from butter, but we all know this will be slipped into other things, just like hfcs.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Butter is, like, the one dairy product I don't miss. Pass.

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

My #1 fear of this... I'm sure they'll fix it:

(Yes, I used AI to make that. "Black Butter" is also apparently real and actually looks super tasty!)

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[–] ThanksObama@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So Bill Gates invented margarine?

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 4 points 3 days ago

Isn't margarine hydrogenated oil? These guys made the oil, apparently.

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