This craft brewery is using carbon capture to reuse CO2 in its beer

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This craft brewery is using carbon capture
to reuse CO2 in its beer 

(from The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show, ‘What On Earth’)

A central Alberta, Canada, business is taking a unique approach to carbon capture: serving up some of its emissions in beer. 

Breweries produce carbon dioxide during the fermentation process and they use CO2 to carbonate beer. So a central Alberta company is taking what seems like the logical next step, by becoming the first small brewery in Canada to use carbon capture technology to recycle those emissions.

Blindman Brewing, based in Lacombe, Alta., spends about $60,000 a year buying CO2 canisters to give their beers the perfect refreshing texture. But during fermentation, yeast devours sugars, producing alcohol and CO2 as byproducts. 

Now, the brewery will be capturing that CO2, scrubbing it and compressing it to carbonate their beers and run canning lines — thereby reducing their emissions and bringing the need for purchased CO2 to near zero. 

Kirk Zembal, the brewery’s co-founder, said he spent five years researching the right equipment, which was purchased with the help of a grant through Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), a not-for-profit program that helps develop technological innovations. 

“When you have these ideas that are simple, that reduce emissions and that are financially viable, well, those are win-win-wins,” he said. 

The device, which is about the size of a refrigerator, is designed for small breweries by Texas-based Earthly Labs. It cost $200,000, half of which was covered by ERA. 

Zembal estimated that his business would capture about 100 tonnes of CO2.

“There’s 1,100 other craft breweries in Canada, 7,000 or 8,000 in the United States and tens of thousands more around the world. If we can all adopt equipment like this, well, now we’re making a big impact.”

He said the investment is expected to pay for itself in two to three years.

The carbon capture program, which will be installed this summer, is just one of the brewery’s steps toward going green, alongside installing a solar array and recycling its plastic can holders.

The brewery is partnering with Olds College to develop a data set on emissions reductions and profitability, so its experience can be shared with other breweries across the country that are interested in the environmentally friendly process.

“I think it’s baked into the ethos of craft beer to do better and, you know, we really all need to reduce our carbon emissions,” Zembal said.
— Sarah Rieger (CBC Radio’s ‘What On Earth’)
Blindman Brewing Company

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