Bavarian researchers develop new method for brewing climate-friendly beer

Researchers in Bavaria have invented a new method to slash the carbon emissions of smaller breweries, reports Norbert Lossau in die Welt. An innovative technology developed at the University of Bayreuth captures the CO2 released during brewing, allowing its later use to add fizz to beer and to clean recycled bottles. Europe's roughly 1,750 small breweries – of which almost 260 are in Germany – currently buy the CO2 they need because capturing it is too expensive, the report says. Large industrial beer makers already capture the CO2, but the process they use is prohibitively expensive for smaller breweries.

The new technology is being tested at a pilot plant, and project manager Bernd Rosemann, from the University's department for environmentally friendly production technology, says the results are promising. "Our process recovers CO2 sustainably, regeneratively and economically," he said, adding that the cost of CO2 recovery is more than 30 percent cheaper than buying the climate-damaging gas. However, the Bayreuth researchers are not fully satisfied with their innovation because it is not yet efficient enough to allow breweries to completely avoid purchasing CO2, writes Lossau. The system requires further research and optimisation. "Our goal is to reduce the CO2 release during the production of beer by up to 80 percent," says Rosemann.