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2024-11-11

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Bill Gates-backed startup makes ‘butter’ out of water and carbon dioxide (www.zmescience.com)

submitted 4 months ago by disguy_ovahea to c/science

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A California-based startup called Savor has figured out a unique way to make a butter alternative that doesn’t involve livestock, plants, or even displacing land. Their butter is produced from synthetic fat made using carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and the best part is —- it tastes just like regular butter.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Something I wondered with this, is that butter/margarine/similar need an emulsifier. They consist of basically 80% fat + 20% water, which would not normally mix, but then you add an emulsifier and they do.

There's lots of different emulsifiers. In butter, it's apparently mostly casein. My margarine lists lecithin and glyceride.

And well, looks like glyceride consists out of lots of H, C and O, so I'm guessing that's probably what they're using in this process...