Beer Diesel
Not only is algae finding another interested party but it’s using the waste CO2 from brewing beer! Two noble efforts in one – making brew and biofuel feedstock at the same time.
New Belgium Brewing Co.’s latest liquid fuel will be based on pond scum.
The environmentally friendly microbrewery is working with a Fort Collins energy startup to make biodiesel fuel from algae, based partially on the beer maker’s waste products.
The biodiesel technology belongs to two-year-old Solix Biofuels, located just 500 yards from New Belgium in an old coal-fired power plant. The firm, in alliance with Colorado State University scientists, is working on algae-based biodiesel.
“We know it works. The biology works. The algae grows,” said Solix CEO Doug Henston. “But can you get them to grow and produce the way we want them to?”
I read about this brewery a few years ago and since they popped up in the news again I thought I’d share their amazing story. It would’t be so amazing if everyone would do this stuff but they don’t. Besides, any brewery with product names like Fat Tire, Blue Paddle, and Sunshine can’t be too ordinary.
Ya gotta love their beer bottle windmill image. Don’t be fooled tho, these people look for a payback for all their efforts. They believe the 4Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle, and renewable) will result in lower operating costs, and they have the lower utility bills to prove it.
In 1998, New Belgium took an employee vote and decided to commit to being the nation’s first 100% wind-powered brewery.
In 2002 we agreed to participate in the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) pilot program. From sun tubes and daylighting throughout the facility to reusing heat in the brewhouse, we continue to search out new ways to close loops and conserve resources.
Our reuse program includes heat for the brewing process, cleaning chemicals, water and much more. Recyling at New Belgium takes on many forms, from turning “waste” products into something new and useful (like spent grain to cattle feed), to supporting the recycling market in creative ways (like turning our keg caps into table surfaces).
Here is a pdf report from 2004 about their CHP installation. I wonder if they ever exapnded. The company website doesn’t say. In fact it only mentions the CHP in passing (talking about their waste-water treatment).
In 2002, New Belgium completed installation of its own process water treatment facility. This cutting-edge technology allows us to clean our process waters (water used for brewing and cleaning throughout the facility) without burdening the municipal system.
Another remarkable byproduct of this process is the production of methane. As the bacteria consume the organic waste material, methane is produced. We then capture this methane and pipe it back into the building where it fires a combined heat and power engine that produces both electrical and thermal energy. This allows us to power about 10% of the brewery with this byproduct of our process wastewater treatment thereby turning a wastestream into a commodity.
From the pdf report:
While wastewater cost savings and renewable energy production were the primary drivers, energy cost savings were another. New Belgium and other similar businesses in Fort Collins pay not only an energy use charge ($0.0164 per kWh) and a fixed demand charge ($4.31 per kW) but also a coincident peak demand charge ($11.62 per kW). The coincident peak demand is the amount of power New Belgium is using at the time when Platte River Power Authority (Fort Collins Utilities’ generation and transmission supplier) hits its system-wide peak. The energy cost savings of $3,000 per month are mainly from cutting the coincident peak demand.
My original exposure to the company was an article about how they had captured a lot of the heat lost in the brewing process and how that impacted their energy costs (breweries use a whole lotta heat). I tried to find said article but could not – too old I guess. Too bad, it was a well done piece (I thought it was before the CHP installation). There’s a lot of clever engineering built into New Belgium Brewing Co.
They also like to preach what they practice.
- Posted in : Environment, In the News, Pictures, Positive Change, Renewable Energy, Science
- Author :Rt
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