 They’re also beta-testing a diesel-hybrid for Peterbilt |
A brewing company in Chico, Calif. is adapting a new system at its brewery that will make its own high-quality ethanol fuel from discarded beer yeast.
The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., working with the E-Fuel Corporation, will start testing the system in the second quarter of this year, and hopes to move to full-scale ethanol production in third quarter.
“This has the potential to be a great thing for the environment and further our commitment to be becoming more energy independent,” said Ken Grossman, founder and president, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Currently, Sierra Nevada resells almost 1.6 million gallons of unusable “bottom of the barrel” beer yeast waste to local farmers to be used as dairy feed. The waste contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol content, including enough yeast and nutrients to enable the ethanol system, the MicroFueler, to raise that level to 15 percent alcohol, allowing for an increased ethanol yield.
I think we’ll try some Sierra Nevada, this weekend. Hopefully, they make a nice hoppy ale.
Sierra Nevada’s pale ale is quite nice – and yes, it’s hoppy, as befits an American pale ale. It’s not going to knock your socks off, but it’s very serviceable.
Milwaukee took the waste water from its many breweries and turned the yeast/hops remains into a compost/fertilizer. It is sold under the name Milorganite.
They should try this in any college town… Berkeley would be a good start! What a great idea!!!
What do they do with the yeast now?
Oh, I should actually READ the blog… ha
One for the road, eh?
They already make diesel-hybrids. They are called locomotives. I don’t know why this didn’t occur to truck makers before. Duh.
Running my car, right now on 10% ethanol blend made from dairy industrial waste, casein. It raises the octane level of 91 octane to 98, lowers the petrol’s viscosity to make it inject better, and cleans and dries the fuel and exhaust systems. And it’s cheaper, reduces my carbon footprint and smells like a dry martini.
Darn! With a headline of “Drink Beer Make Fuel,” I had this vision of being able to pee into the gas tank. Ah well, maybe Prius will come out with that model soon. They could name it the “Peeus.”
Coors has been doing this for years.
Toyota Peeus. I like the sound of that.
Make it a high end luxury car. It would sell like hot cakes to the Republicans who like to piss on everyone else.
OK, for the wing nuts, this is just another in the greening of America.
Years ago this would have been waste and thrown out. They have since found a second use that will contribute to energy conservation as well as reducing land fill.
Restaurant food scraps are now being recycled as animal food.
Wood scraps power the wood and paper mills.
Waste natural gas is being used to refine crude oil.
And the list goes on.
This is the type of thing I like to hear about, using waste, rather than food, to make altenative fuels.
“Currently, Sierra Nevada resells almost 1.6 million gallons of unusable “bottom of the barrel” beer yeast waste to local farmers to be used as dairy feed. The waste contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol”
Ah, this explains why dairy cows don’t rise up and slaughter there oppressors. “I am Sparta-Cow!” They’re not contented cows for no reason. But how healthy can milk be, when cows are eating so much alcohol and yeast? And if they start using this stuff to make Ethanol, then the price of milk is bound to go up. If dairy men would convert to Soy production. Not only would the price of Soy Milk come down, it would reduce heart disease.
Isn’t it a good thing that beer and wine, doesn’t come out of the private parts of an animal? Just as we use microbes to ferment spirits. I think we could do the same for Milk production, if we wanted to. But the industry seems to be stuck in the past, and prefers things that poop all day long, to make this precious stable of our diet. I’m looking forward to the day when some bio-engineered bugs put the domestic dairy cow’s four stomachs out of a job.
I gotta agree with you for the most part, nicely put.