Eco-nomics: Turning Brewery Waste into Natural Gas

In this Jan. 26, 2011 photo, Eric Fitch holds a Magic Hat glass in front of the digester building at the brewery in South Burlington, Vt. The Vermont brewery is giving new meaning to the idea of green beer. Magic Hat Brewing Co., of South Burlington, is the first site to use a device that turns spent grain from the brewing process into natural gas that is then used to fuel brewing operations. The 42-foot tall anaerobic methane digester, installed last summer, extracts energy from the spent hops, barley and yeast left over from the brewing process. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

From Boston.com the story of Magic Hat Brewery's anaerobic methane digester which turns spent grain into natural gas that they then use to fuel the brewery:

Before he started "saving the earth, one beer at a time," all inventor Eric Fitch knew about home brewing was that it could make quite a mess.

Once, he accidentally backed up the plumbing in his apartment building by dumping into his garbage disposal the spent grain left over from his India Pale Ale home brew. The oatmeal-looking gunk choked the pipes in his Cambridge, Mass., building, flooding the basement.

These days, he's doing something more constructive, fulfilling the dream of beer lovers everywhere by recycling the stuff: The MIT-trained mechanical engineer has invented a patented device that turns brewery waste into natural gas that's used to fuel the brewing process.

The anaerobic methane digester, installed last year at Magic Hat Brewing Co. in Vermont, extracts energy from the spent hops, barley and yeast left over from the brewing process -- and it processes the plant's wastewater. That saves the brewer on waste disposal and natural gas purchasing

The 42-foot tall structure, which cost about $4 million to build, sits in the back parking lot of Magic Hat's brewery, where it came online last summer.

Fitch, 37, is CEO of PurposeEnergy, Inc., of Waltham, Mass., a renewable energy startup company whose lone product is the biphase orbicular bioreactor, which is 50 feet in diameter, holds 490,000 gallons of slurry and produces 200 cubic feet of biogas per minute.

Brewers big and small have wrestled with waste issues since the dawn of beer-making. In recent years, they've turned to recycling -- both as a cost-saver and for environmental reasons.

Anheuser-Busch, which makes Budweiser, uses a bio-energy recovery system in 10 of its 12 U.S. breweries to convert wastewater into natural gas that's then used to fuel the brewing process.

New Belgium Brewing Co., in Fort Collins, Colo., captures excess heat from cooling wort and funnels it beneath its loading dock so it doesn't ice up in wintertime. The wort, the liquid made with malt and hot water, is fermented to make beer or ale.

Coors' breweries sell ethanol from their brewing process to refineries in Colorado. Some European breweries dry their spent grain and then burn it, using the heat and energy in their manufacturing process.

Most operations dispose of their spent grain by selling it -- or giving it away -- to farmers, for use as cattle or animal feed.

But PurposeEnergy says its digester is the first in the world to extract energy from the spent grain and then re-use it in the brewery, and all in one place. At Magic Hat, the big brown silo is located about 100 feet from the main complex.

"Feeding it to cattle is pretty direct recycling, especially if you get steak back out of it," said Julie Johnson, editor of All About Beer magazine. "Carting it off as animal feed is pretty common. In this case, by closing the loop at the brewery, this is turning it into savings quite directly for Magic Hat."

[HT: KGW The Square]

Beeronomics and Eco-nomics: Craft Beer in Cans

John Foyston has an article in today's Oregonian business section about the growing trend of craft brewers putting their beer in cans.  His article focuses on Fearless Brewing of Estacada, but Caldera in Ashland cans as well, as has MacTarnahan's and Mac's owner, Pyramid, will soon.  From Foyston's article:

"I expect this whole market just to explode," said Johnson, who owns Fearless Brewing in Estacada with his wife, Barrett. "And I'll be the first one in the local market with cans. Cans are perfect for the way we live out here because you can't take bottles to the golf course, you can't take them out on the river and you don't want to pack them into your campsite. Cans are lighter, they chill faster and they don't break."

Johnson is the latest convert to the craft canning revolution. Although the beer can celebrated its 75th anniversary in late January, it has long been associated with insipid, mass-market lagers. But brewers began to realize that it absolutely protects beers from its two greatest enemies, oxygen and light, and that modern linings eliminated any metallic taste. And about a decade ago, craft brewers tumbled to the fact that if you pour good, flavorful beer into a can, that's what you'll pour out.

Cans have many advantages, and they can be recycled (but not reused).  The fact that this is a cheap method of bringing craft beer to retail outlets may be a boon for craft brewers and for enthusiasts who are always looking to try different beers.  I haven't had any Fearless beer, for example, but will certainly try it if it reaches my local stores.

But it is not all good news and for this reason I think brewers should be cautious.  Currently, as far as I can figure out, most or all aluminum beverage cans are lined using BPA.  Nicholas Kristof did a good job explaining the current concern over BPA in food, and here is a report on the now famous Canadian study of soft drinks in aluminum cans:

The first comprehensive testing of bisphenol A (BPA) levels in canned soft drinks in Canada has found that most contain the controversial chemical.

While the levels are low, some environmentalists say the levels may very well be enough to cause harm to children, especially those who drink a lot of pop or energy drinks.

The study, the largest test of its kind, was conducted for Health Canada as it investigates Canadians' exposure to BPA, which has been linked to cancer and reproductive problems.

The study tested bisphenol A levels in 72 samples of canned drinks, including carbonated, non-carbonated, diet, non-diet, fruit-flavoured and energy drinks. The survey represented at least an 84 per cent market share of canned soft drinks sold in Canada.

The chemical was found in almost all of them, and was particularly high in the energy drinks sampled.

The only exceptions were two samples of tonic water. The researchers suggest the quinine in tonic may have interfered with BPA extraction.

BPA was detected at levels between 0.032 and 4.5ìg/l (micrograms per litre). The highest levels of BPA -- 4.2 and 4.5ìg/l -- were detected in two energy drinks - drinks that are popular with teens and university students who often used them to stay alert as they cram for exams.

The authors calculated that an adult weighing 60 kg consuming one canned soft drink per day would, at the average BPA level found, consume only 0.0034ìg/kg body weight per day and 0.027ìg/kg body weight per day at the highest BPA level.

Now, the final piece in the puzzle - the definitive study that either links BPA consumption with adverse health outcomes (or finds no such adverse outcomes) - has not yet been found, it is likely that cautious consumers will avoid exposure to BPA.  So, until there is a source of BPA free cans for craft brewers, I think it would pay for them to be cautious about moving wholeheartedly into cans.

Update: Over on the Beervana blog, commentator Stan Hieronymus points out a New Belgium blog post on this very issue.  They think the science is pretty clear: no problem with BPA in the lining of cans (they also confim that you can't get non BPA lined cans).  Though they can also say, "get yours in a bottle if you are worried" as they do both.