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Every time a brewery produces a barrel of beer, it produces 7 barrels of waste water. This wastewater cannot yet be poured directly into the sewer - it must be filtered first, which will undoubtedly increase the cost. Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said the wastewater has new uses. It can cultivate fungi as electrodes for "green" batteries.
In the lab, researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, added spores of Neurospora crassa into brewery wastewater. After two days of shaking and heating, the fungus grows rapidly in the sugar-rich water.
The fungus was then filtered out and baked at 800oC until scorched. The resulting carbon-rich material is said to be used to make "the most effective natural-derived lithium-ion battery electrode to date." The last remaining water has also been filtered out.
If you scale up to the commercial level, this is basically a win-win situation for brewers and battery manufacturers. On the one hand, breweries do not have to spend money on expensive filtered wastewater. At the same time, battery manufacturers can also obtain the raw materials needed to make fuel cells.
Currently two co-investigators, Tyler Huggins and Justin Whiteley, have filed patent applications on the technology. The two also set up a startup company to prepare for the next step in the development of the technology.
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