There are fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, butter and Bill Gates in a room. It seems like a joke, but these four things are closely connected. The startup Savora company run by Orca Sciences in which Bill Gates is an investor, has begun producing butter in the laboratory using as starting elements thecarbon dioxide (CO2), fuels fossils And hydrogen (obtained from thewaterfall). A butter that chemically and structurally it is identical to that obtained from milk or from sources vegetablesbut which produces less emissions of greenhouse gases. The results are published in Nature Sustainability.
Chemical composition of butter
Butter is a food obtained from the fatty part of animal milk or from vegetable oils. From a chemical point of view, it is a mixture of triglycerides (over 80%, although there are low-fat butters), water, lactose, proteins, salt and other substances that guarantee its stabilityotherwise it could go rancid.
THE triglycerides which butter is composed of are very simple molecules, formed by a molecule of glycerol tied to 3 molecules of acids fatsFatty acids, in turn, are formed by a long chain of atoms of carbon and hydrogen and with one end containing 2 atoms of oxygen.
How Synthetic Butter Was Made
Savor scientists wondered whether it might be possible to produce these long chains simply by attaching carbon bricks taken from other sources and synthesizing in the laboratory the same fats that make up butter.
Ultimately, these are very simple elements that are found almost everywhere. In particular, carbon is abundant in fossil fuels, which we already use to produce energy for our homes and cars, and in CO2one of the gases that contributes most to the greenhouse effect and global warming.
To form fatty acid chains, carbon is extracted from carbon dioxide (or from fossil fuels) and reacted under heat with hydrogen And oxygen taken from the air. To finish the work, all that remains is to add water, salt and, as reported by the company blog, a bit of beta carotene (already authorized in the production of animal and vegetable butter) to reproduce the typical color of butter (yellowish). Here it is chemicallystructurally, and also visually, we have a butter practically equal to that produced from animal and plant sources.
The taste of synthetic butter
As for the taste, the company is conducting various tests and according to one of the first illustrious tasters, Bill Gateslaboratory butter tastes the same as the one on our tables. He declared “I can’t believe it’s not butter”, a bit like in an old commercial for margarine (vegetable butter).
Even though when we hear the word “synthetic” we turn up our noses and tend to think of plastic, this is not the case.
“Synthetic” does not mean different, better or worse than “natural”. It simply means that a different path was taken to arrive at the same chemical structure. And when the end result is the same, the taste, smell, effects and risks are exactly the same. In fact, researchers warn: same taste, same color… and even same calories!
What changes and what represents an important turning point is theenvironmental impact and the sustainability of the production process, a fundamental aspect to take into account in the fight against climate change.
Environmental impact of synthetic butter
The idea of creating food without using agricultural land is not new and is part of the research, summarized in an article on Nature Sustainabilityto reduce the environmental impact of agriculture in terms of land exploitationimpoverishment of the biodiversitywater consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. As Gates recalls, in fact, «The process does not emit greenhouse gases, does not use agricultural land and requires a thousandth of the water needed for traditional agriculture».
Despite its simplicity, in fact, the production process of butter is both animal and vegetable (for example from palmitic acid) It requires a lot of energy and water and can produce from 1 to 3 g of CO2 equivalent per kcal. Instead, for fatty acids produced in the laboratory from fossil fuels less than 1 g is produced (about 0.8 g CO2 eq/kcal) and if CO is used2 extracted from the air and using renewable energy sources, we arrive almost at zero net emissions. A very interesting milestone!
The next steps, say the researchers and the company’s founders, will be the large scale production at low costs and the request for due Permissions to the competent bodies. Maybe in a few years, in addition to the choice between butter, margarine, diet butter and so on, among the alternatives to butter we will also find synthetic butter on the shelves!
