Well not quite, although some home brewers might find the idea of a battery made from beer appealing. ACS Publications reports researchers at University of Colorado Boulder have found a way to convert wastewater from the brewing process into green electrodes.
The scientists found that breweries consume about seven pints of water for every pint of beer. They must filter it first, before flushing into the sewers. This adds to the cost of beer. The researchers would prefer them to use the water to grow a fungus. This could become an electrode, and this is how it works.
An Electrode for a Battery Made from Beer
The fungus in question is Neurospora Crassa. This is what makes bread become moldy too. This makes sense as beer and bread both come from wheat. The researchers warmed the sugary wastewater until the fungus sprouted. They extracted it with a filter, and then baked it at 800º C (1,472º F) until it charred.
They hope to use the resulting carbon-rich material to produce “one of the most efficient naturally-derived lithium-ion battery electrodes we know to date,” according to New Atlas magazine.
Benefits for Beer and Battery Industries
The beer industry could use the idea to simultaneously filter its wastewater, and have an incubating medium to sell to battery manufacturers. Lead researchers Tyler Huggins and Justin Whiteley have filed a patent, and launched a company ‘Emergy’ to commercialize their idea.
The Role of Emergy in a Green World
Their company name harmonizes with the scientific term for energy transformations that become inputs to services and products. This is already helping transform sunlight, water, minerals, biomass, and fossil fuels into renewable energy.
Higgins and Whitely have, in their own words made progress in developing “sustainable, carbon-based materials from living, self assembled material”. We wish them well in their endeavors to produce viable electrodes for a battery made from beer byproducts.
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