Beer waste may hold answers to fuel crisis

One answer to lessening the country’s dependence on foreign fuel imports might be hiding in the six-pack you carry home from the liquor store.

At the Coors brewery here, the brewer and Merrick & Co. of Aurora, Colo., are using beer waste to process 1.5 million gallons a year of the gas substitute ethanol.

The 9-year-old plant that distills the residuals from beer making has been such a success, officials from the brewer and the engineering company said, that a second, $2.3 million plant will open later this month on the same site.

The second plant will double ethanol production at the brewery, partly by gathering millions of gallons of spilled beer and putting it directly into the process via an underground pipeline.

"With the demand high and the need even higher, it seemed like a great time to expand," said Steven Wagner, the Merrick vice president who helps lead the Coors ethanol project. Under a 15-year agreement, the company leases land from Coors, buys the residuals from the brewer and owns the plant.

The ethanol — made in a maze of stainless steel pipes in much the same way as moonshine — is sold under a contract with Valero Energy Corp., which distributes the ethanol to Diamond Shamrock stations.

"We’ve basically taken a waste stream and turned it into a revenue stream," Wagner said.

By Robert Sanchez
The Denver Post

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