Savor, a California-based startup backed by legendary businessman Bill Gates, has come up with a method of producing butter-like fat out of just carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Starting from the idea that all fats are composed of chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms, Savor patented a thermochemical process to build fat molecules and then produce dairy-free alternatives to products like milk, butter, cheese, and ice cream that not only have the same texture as the real thing but also taste the same. This process doesn’t release any greenhouse gases, and it uses no farmland and less than a thousandth of the water that traditional agriculture does, so this synthesized fat has a much lower carbon footprint than real animal fat. So far, taste tests have shown that Savor’s alternative to butter has an almost indistinguishable flavor from the real thing, but the company still has a lot of challenges to overcome before bringing it to market.

Photo: Sorin Gheorghita/Unsplash

“We are currently pre-commercial and working through regulatory approval to be able to sell our butter,” Kathleen Alexander, CEO of Savor, said. “We are not expecting to be able to move forward with any kind of sales until at least 2025.”

In a recent blog post, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates explained that Savor has a real shot of coming up with a successful butter alternative, because their version “tastes really good – like the real thing, because chemically it is.” That’s something that many other startups have been struggling with. Many people are already reticent about trying lab-produced food alternatives, so taste is a crucial component.

“They started with the fact that all fats are made of varying chains of carbon and hydrogen atoms,” Gates wrote in a blog post. “Then they set out to make those same carbon and hydrogen chains – without involving animals or plants. They ultimately developed a process that involves taking carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, heating them up, and oxidizing them to trigger the separation of fatty acids and then the formulation of fat.”

 

The tech billionaire also highlighted the importance of animal food alternatives like Savor’s version of butter in reducing our carbon footprint. The livestock industry contributes 14.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions, and with human population on the rise, emissions are also expected to go up, unless we do something about it.

“The big challenge is to drive down the price so that products like Savor’s become affordable to the masses – either the same cost as animal fats or less,” Gates, wrote.

CO2 and hydrogen-synthesized butter is apparently just the beginning. Savor has plans to make milk, cheese, and ice cream, among others, in the not-so-distant future.