Energy and Water from Beer Waste

On a somewhat lighter note, from Physorg.com, Australian beer maker Foster's is going to generate clean energy and clean water from brewery waste water by using a fuel cell in which bacteria consume the sugar, starch and alcohol in the waste. 

The fuel cell is expected to produce 2 kilowatts of power — enough to power a household — and the technology would eventually be applied in other breweries and wineries owned by Foster's. The cell should be operating at the brewery by September."Brewery waste water is a particularly good source because it is very biodegradable ... and is highly concentrated, which does help in improving the performance of the cell," said Prof. Jurg Keller, the university's wastewater expert.  .

The 660-gallon fuel cell will be 250 times bigger than a prototype that has been operating at Australia's University of Queensland laboratory for three months.

The experimental technology was unveiled Wednesday by scientists at the university, which was given a $115,000 state government grant to install the microbial fuel cell at the brewery.

Comments

[Robbie]

I would have preferred to see that money go to the university to improve the process. That amount of money is just too much for a production facility that can only produce 2 KW.

[Ewout]

If the 2kW is constant power, it should be enough for 2 (USA) to 5 (Europe) households.

At $0,10 per kWh though, that's a pay back time of about a century... In the original article it says that the fuel cell acts as a cleaning facility too, which could make the investment much more justified (win-win).

[amazingdrx]

Uhhh, two breweries already use biogas in fuel cells from brewery waste. Then waste heat from the fuel cell is used to make steam to provide cogenerated process and cleaning energy.

Not sure what this article means?

How does a fuel cell use bacteria to process alchohol, sugar, and starch? How much of that is even in the waste water?

I think this is another case of a technically illiterate reporter trying to write about technology. And the blog world bought into it. It's all over google blog search.

I'm betting it's a biogas digestor to fuel cell as in the other breweries. Already in very profitable operation, BTW.

Read about them on my blog.

Here's my entry on brewery waste to fuel cell.

[John F.]

If the biogas digestor approach is indeed "very profitable", these guys must either be doing something very different, or doing it extremely badly. $57/Watt is far from profitable. Wind can barely make an unsubisdized profit at $1/Watt.

And this fuel cell won't pay for itself in electricity sales even in 100 years. Factor in interest, and it never makes a return.

I think they're expecting to make a profit by using this as a P.R. stunt and thereby selling more beer.

[John F.]

And that's fine by me, by the way. Better spend the $115K on this than advertising.

[Kit P]

Using anaerobic digesters to produce biogas and running it to an ICE to make electricity and process heat is not new. The more valuable product is the organic fertilizer like Milorganite. http://www.milorganite.com/home/

[micu]

Using beer waste is absolutely a wonderful idea.

[joaquin]

How did our parents survived?

[Run your car on water]

Hey there I really enjoyed reding your blog and its good that people are getting the word out on this technology. PLease feel free to visit my blog http://run-your-car-on-water.blogspot.com/

[the prophet]

what a great way to really not waste any of that liquid gold.

[the prophet]

what a great way to really not waste any of that liquid gold.