Sierra Nevada to Turn Yeast Cake into Fuel?

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ReverbbqBrew

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Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal just reported that E-Fuel Corp. said Tuesday it reached an agreement with the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to create high-grade ethanol fuel from discarded beer yeast.

On average, Sierra Nevada resells 1.6 million gallons of used yeast cake each year. E-Fuel claims that it’s home ethanol system, the “Efuel100 MicroFueler”, can turn this brewing byproduct into energy.

I was wondering how I could power my brewery off the grid. In combination with a good well, some solar panels and hamster wheels, could this really be a sustainable brewer’s flux-capacitor come to life?

No, really?



Sierra Nevada to turn beer yeast into fuel - Sacramento Business Journal:
 
To operate simply load EFuel100 feedstock (table sugar with ethanol yeast mix) into the fermentation tank and select the fermentation option on the control panel to begin the process. It will take between 10lbs to 14lbs of sugar to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. The MicroFueler is capable of producing 5 gallons of ethanol per day once fermentation is complete.

Sounds like expensive fuel - unless someone knows a source of really cheap fuel, plus the unit uses 3 kw/h of power for every gallon of fuel it makes..

Don't Dump That Batch - Turn it into fuel!

Discarded Alcohol Recovery Mode

The MicroFueler has a distillation-only mode, which allows the consumer to convert discarded beer, wine or distilled drinks into ethanol--any combination of discarded alcohol can be poured directly into the MicroFueler fermentation tank to be converted into ethanol. Caution should be taken not to allow any discarded impurities, such as dirt or debris, to enter the fermentation tank which could clog or harm the future operation of the MicroFueler system. This can be achieved by passing the liquid through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to filter unwanted particles before they can enter into the MicroFueler distillation tank.
 
"It will take between 10lbs to 14lbs of sugar to produce 1 gallon of ethanol."

Yeah, I wonder what the gravity of the fuel would be then? I think I've brewed a barley wine like that before. That would need a lot of hops to make it drinkable.:drunk:
 
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