Carleton University student finds a way to turn beer into electricity

An Ottawa graduate student is serving up a popular pub drink as a new way to power a local brewery.

Seyedomid Ahmadinejad focused his master’s degree in environmental engineering at Carleton University and when deciding on a research project, he wanted to use the wastewater from beer.

He knew that after water and tea, beer is the most popular drink in the world. At the same time, the hoppy beverage can produce up to 10 times more wastewater.

When brewed, yeast, hops and other organics get separated and composted, while a brownish, earthy-smelling liquid, is sent to the municipal sewer system, a press release from the university reads. Disposal costs businesses a fee in Ottawa.

This runoff contains nitrogen, phosphorus and chemicals that breweries use to clean tanks and lines. Ahmadinejad sought to convert the effluent into a product that could lower waste and doesn’t cost too much.

Using his lab at Carleton to treat samples from Ottawa’s Dominion City Brewing Co., Ahmadinejad was able to extract biogas that could be used to generate electricity, heat buildings, fuel vehicles or power on-site brewing operations, the press release notes.

“We’re turning brewery wastewater into renewable energy,” he said.

The grad student, with supervision from professors Abid Hussain and Banu Örmeci, developed a bioelectrochemically enhanced anaerobic digestion (BEAD) system.

The process breaks down the organic material in the beer waste to produce biogas, including methane, which is cleaner than traditional fuel sources.

“We’re constantly revising our method to get a different result,” Ahmadinejad said. “Every day is a new challenge.”