ALGAE AND CO2 EMISSIONS – THE SCIENCE OF CRAFT BEER

, ALGAE AND CO2 EMISSIONS – THE SCIENCE OF CRAFT BEER

If you’ve made it this far down the rabbit hole that is craft beer, you know that science plays a major role in the beer brewing process. Brewers are essentially a combination of chemists and chefs, manipulating fermentable sugars and alpha acids to make great-tasting craft beer. They also use yeast and other bacteria to interact with those ingredients, creating alcohol and other unique flavors.

But did you know that the fermentation process of beer emits quite a bit of CO2? If you’re a homebrewer or go on brewery tours often, you know that the bubbling air lock or the bucket next to the giant fermenter at a brewery is helping to manage the CO2 emissions. Breweries often try to exist as sustainably as possible – giving away spent grain to local farmers, heat-exchanging mash tun water, and even installing solar energy panels. But what about the CO2 emissions?

, ALGAE AND CO2 EMISSIONS – THE SCIENCE OF CRAFT BEERThat’s where Superior Ecotech comes in, a new company in Boulder, CO, that plans to capture brewery CO2 emissions using algae. Yes, algae. Superior Ecotech has developed a technology that converts waste CO2 emissions from breweries and ethanol plants into high-value, algae-derived omega-3 oils. They plan to build, own, and operate algae growth chambers at breweries and ethanol plants where they will grow, harvest, and process algae. They will then extract valuable omega-3 oils from the algae and sell them to customers, who will incorporate them into consumer products such as health foods and cosmetics.

How does the algae work, you might be asking? Algae are a simple plant like seaweed and they grow by soaking up CO2 and sunlight. There are thousands of different strains of algae that can produce different products after growing. Superior Ecotech targets the best strains for omega-3 oil production. As discussed earlier, CO2 is emitted from breweries when beer is fermented. Algae can soak up twice their mass in CO2, so by the time you have grown one ton of algae, you will have soaked up two tons of CO2. Breweries produce very clean CO2, and depending on the size of the brewery and the size of the algae greenhouse, Superior Ecotech could soak up around 90% of CO2 emissions. More realistically though, a one-acre site at a craft brewery would soak up around 20% of their greenhouse gas emissions. 

That’s not too shabby and quite the win-win situation for both Superior Ecotech as well as craft breweries interested in reducing their carbon footprint (and sharing a piece of the profits in exchange for algae all up in their brewery, I might imagine). Superior Ecotech, made up of students from the University of Colorado and Iowa State University, has an algae growing prototype at Iowa State University that has recently proven they can grow algae up to three times faster than the leading technology. Moreover, Superior Ecotech’s technology increases the speed at which algae produce their healthy, sustainable, and valuable oils. 

, ALGAE AND CO2 EMISSIONS – THE SCIENCE OF CRAFT BEER

They’ve recently partnered with Upslope Brewing Company in Boulder, CO, to launch the brewing industry’s first rooftop algae greenhouse. “We’re building our pilot at Upslope, where they have exactly what we need and are really supporting this project. This algae greenhouse will allow us to prove our business model and optimize our technology whilst helping them reduce CO2 emissions,” said Daniel Higgs, Superior Ecotech CEO.

It will be interesting to see if rooftop algae greenhouses take off at breweries around the country, or even what other unique scientific products or processes will come to the craft beer scene in the near future. As someone that knows the brewer’s mentality though, I do know what the logical next step in this case will be – algae-infused beer!

About AmericanCraftBeer.com

AmericanCraftBeer.com is the nations' leading source for the Best Craft Beer News, Reviews, Events and Media.
Scroll To Top