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Beer Company Converts Old Beer Into Green Energy

Seven million pints of beer that could not be sold have been recycled into biogas that has powered the brewery that produced them.

Heineken’s Manchester brewery turned the huge amount of beer initially destined to pubs before they were closed into power for the brewing kettles and canning pasteurisers.

The power generated thus far would be enough to heat almost 28,000 UK homes for an entire day according to a Heineken press release.

The kegs of beer were emptied into the factory’s brewing vessels by reversing their kegging line production system, before being drip-fed into the wastewater treatment plant on-site.

This beer is then fed into the anaerobic digester which converts alcohol into biogas, which is either stored in tanks with pressure relief valves or used directly by the brewery.

This is accomplished through the used of a combined heat and power unit which is powered by an engine the size and power of the Merlin engines that enabled the Spitfire plane to fly.

The plant also uses steam boilers to similarly convert the biogas into heat.

Over 70,000 litres of beer are processed by the wastewater treatment plant every day, effectively turning the old beer into a power source that enables the production of new batches of beer.

According to the British Beer and Pub Association, 87 million pints have been thrown away over the last year as a result of pub closures, but at least seven million of these will not have been completely wasted.