"From now on we'll be driving on beer, at least a little!"
Zero alcohol beer is becoming more and more popular, but the alcohol removed during the production process can be put to good use in Leuven. Brewers AB InBev now intend to use this alcohol to propel cars.
Alcohol is removed from beer using yeasts and bacteria. Each and every week three tankers with 75,000 litres of alcohol removed from Leffe Blond 0.0% and Jupiler 0.0% are driven out of the plant. Until now the alcohol has simply been thrown away. Together with his team David De Schutter is developing a plan to turn this alcohol into fuel.
"We believe this is a more ecological approach. Our aim is to have no waste at the end of the day. With alcohol from 85 cans of alcohol-free beer we can produce a litre of biofuel.”
Alcogroup, the Belgian producer of biofuels, is a client of AB InBev. It removes ethanol from the alcohol and turns it into fuel.
Charles Albert Peers, CEO of Alcogroup: "We are very happy that together we have found a renewable solution. Both AB InBev and we wish to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible. The E10 petrol 95 we tank today contains a fraction of bioethanol. This product will soon be retrieved from AB InBev beers. From now on we'll be driving on beer, at least a little!"