Air Butter: Bill Gates Backs a Cow-Free Lipid Revolution
Sourse: dairynews.today
Bill Gates invests in 'air butter' made with CO₂ and water, offering authentic taste with a minimal footprint and set for a 2025 market release.
In a groundbreaking move towards sustainable food production, Bill Gates has thrown his financial weight behind 'air butter', a revolutionary substitute for traditional dairy products. This innovation comes from the California-based startup, Savor, which has engineered a method to create fats identical to butter using CO₂, hydrogen, and water.
This process involves capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combining it with hydrogen and oxygen to replicate the molecular structure of traditional butter. The company not only plans to produce butter substitutes but also aims to roll out products like milk, cheese, ice cream, and vegetable oils. The project has received a significant boost with an investment of approximately 33 million dollars from Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund. Gates, who has personally tested the product, remarked, "I couldn’t believe it was not real butter", highlighting the authenticity of the taste.
Savor’s thermo-chemical technology accomplishes this feat without emitting greenhouse gases, requiring minimal water usage and no agricultural land. The projected carbon footprint is less than 0.8 g CO₂e/kg, significantly lower than that of conventional fats. Currently in its pilot phase in Illinois, and pending regulatory approval, Savor is gearing up for a pre-commercial launch in 2025, with the goal of reducing production costs to compete with traditional dairy and vegetable oils.
This initiative is poised not only to challenge the conventional cattle farming, which is responsible for 14-20% of global emissions, but also to offer a scalable and environmentally friendly alternative to unsustainable crops like palm, marking a significant step in the fight against climate change.
This process involves capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combining it with hydrogen and oxygen to replicate the molecular structure of traditional butter. The company not only plans to produce butter substitutes but also aims to roll out products like milk, cheese, ice cream, and vegetable oils. The project has received a significant boost with an investment of approximately 33 million dollars from Gates's Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund. Gates, who has personally tested the product, remarked, "I couldn’t believe it was not real butter", highlighting the authenticity of the taste.
Savor’s thermo-chemical technology accomplishes this feat without emitting greenhouse gases, requiring minimal water usage and no agricultural land. The projected carbon footprint is less than 0.8 g CO₂e/kg, significantly lower than that of conventional fats. Currently in its pilot phase in Illinois, and pending regulatory approval, Savor is gearing up for a pre-commercial launch in 2025, with the goal of reducing production costs to compete with traditional dairy and vegetable oils.
This initiative is poised not only to challenge the conventional cattle farming, which is responsible for 14-20% of global emissions, but also to offer a scalable and environmentally friendly alternative to unsustainable crops like palm, marking a significant step in the fight against climate change.
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