Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to Make Beer Waste Ethanol Using Micro-Fuelers

photo: E-Fuel

Those of you who are aficionados of Sierra Nevada’s beers will soon be able to drink up knowing that the waste from producing that beer has been put to good use. Sierra Nevada and E-Fuel Corp have announced that they will be partnering to make ethanol from discarded beer yeast:E-Fuel makes the Efuel100 Micro Fueler, a portable ethanol micro-refinery, an undisclosed number of which will be used at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Chico, California. Full-scale ethanol production will begin in the third quarter of 2009. The ethanol will be used initially in Sierra Nevada’s own vehicles, but may be distributed to employees or sold more widely in the future.

Sierra Nevada sells about 1.6 million gallons of beer yeast waste to farmers each year as dairy feed.

via: Sacramento Business Journal, Fast CompanyWaste-to-EnergyBeer Waste to Energy: Anheuser-Busch’s BERS SystemIndustrial-Scale Waste-to-Ethanol Facility Planned for Edmonton120 kW ‘Portable’ Commercial Waste-to-Energy Generator Introduced by IST Energy