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> Their sales pitch was that the product was petroleum-free, a boon for spas that like to market being “natural.” It's interesting that people see genetically
by nostromo 6y ago
> Their sales pitch was that the product was petroleum-free, a boon for spas that like to market being “natural.”
It's interesting that people see genetically modified yeast producing hydrogen peroxide as "natural" -- but not regular hydrogen peroxide.
- ponker 6y agoWell you can see the advantage here, the biological process that created this hydrogen peroxide from wastewater also created other compounds beneficial to the application. This isn't New Age chakra stuff, this has a direct chemical cause-and-effect.
- maxerickson 6y agoThey also buy waste from corn ethanol plants, which is nice, but there's a lot of natural gas and diesel implicated in those processes.
- frandroid 6y agoThe ethanol plants are already in the greenwashing business so it makes sense to go all-in. :)
- Alex3917 6y ago> It's interesting that people see genetically modified yeast producing hydrogen peroxide as "natural" -- but not regular hydrogen peroxide. If the yeast started producing too much hydrogen peroxide then presumably it would just die. Unlike when someone adds too much chemicals to a pool, which is common enough that probably most people have experienced it.
- three_seagrass 6y agoTheir product sounds like pure hydrogen peroxide, not the actual yeast. The yeast are in chemical reactors. The company harvests the peroxide from the reactors and sells it as a substitute to petroleum-produced peroxide.
- three_seagrass 6y agoThat's because GMO-free and the natural fallacy are marketing ploys.
- velox_io 6y agoThe entire ad campaign around OxiClean: "usages the power of oxyzen" as if it natural and chemical free. It may be natural, but it isn't the [semi] friendly O2 variety that we breath. Read some of the Q&As for Ozone Generators on Amazon, many people think it's safe for humans and pets. The internet is a dangerous place for information at times.
- vondur 6y agoOlder laser printers were notorious for generating Ozone. I don't think people realize that Ozone is also bad for humans in addition to the atmosphere.
- verall 6y agoI really don't know how people think these are safe, I have a "ozone-free" UVC disinfectant light and it still produces enough ozone to smell pretty bad. I can only imagine how an O3 generator smells.
- taneq 6y agoArrrrrgh oxygen is a chemical, everything is made of chemicals.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- freshpots 6y agoOxygen is an element. Diatomic oxygen commonly known as O2 is a chemical. Everything is made of elements, including chemicals.
- taneq 6y agoOxygen gas, colloquially referred to as 'oxygen', is a chemical. If you want to be a smartypants I guess noble gases are elementary.
- 6y ago
- robbomacrae 6y agoI think this was just a bad summarization of the selling point for spas. This solution, coming from yeast, is carbon net negative (as they mention further down in the article) and reduces demand for a product of petroleum which might lead to more staying in the ground. The spa can then claim a lower carbon footprint which I imagine is very marketable.
- geitir 6y agoHydrogen peroxide needs to be industrially synthesized and from googling a traditional synthesis route uses a palladium catalyst. That said I'm sure antiseptic hydrogen peroxide is highly regulated regarding trace metals.
- hoopleheaded 6y agoVanillin is a good example of this. Vanillin produced by engineered yeast cost multiple times more than synthetic vanillin despite being identical products. This is because US packaging does not need to call the yeast-produced compound artificial vanilla flavor.