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Spinoff story
Carbon Capture Process Makes Sustainable Oil
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Palm oil, found in everything from soap to ice cream, is also a key driver of deforestation. Likewise, soybeans provide protein for fish and livestock but only at huge environmental cost. Now, San Francisco Bay Area-based Kiverdi offers a sustainable alternative: proteins and oils produced by bacteria—with a process based on early life-support studies for deep-space missions published by Ames Research Center. As the researchers discovered in the 1960s, the process is not only far more efficient than traditional agriculture but also captures, and transforms, excess carbon dioxide.