Biofuel from Beer Waste

Love your ales, pilsners, weissbeers and stouts, but worried about all that fermented grain waste?

Thanks to German researcher Wolfgang Bengel, brew lovers can help create cleaner energy every time they down a pint.

Bengel, the technical director at German biomass company BMP Biomasse Projekt, has developed steam boilers that safely burn the spent grain left over from brewing beer. In the process, Bengel and his partners created a system for effective anaerobic (oxygen-free) treatment of waste water from breweries as well.

The combined systems offer breweries a comprehensive way to reduce their environmental footprints, as well as cut operating costs: recycling their brewing waste into a biofuel source; slashing the amount of grain waste trucked out of their facilities; and ultimately using less energy overall.

"Beer making is energy intensive - you boil stuff, use hot water and steam and then use electric energy for cooling - so if you recover more than 50 percent of your own energy costs from the spent grain that's a big saving," says Bengel in a statement.

Thanks Gavin!