We know who turned water into wine. Now Australian scientists are going a step further – they are turning wine and beer waste into water to generate electricity.
Miracles aside, man still relies on a lengthy process to make alcoholic drinks that produces tens of millions of litres of waste water a day.
Scientists at the University of Queensland have developed a way of recycling that waste twice over. The technology involves sugar-consuming bacteria that “clean” the water and produce energy in the process.
After laboratory tests, they are now building a chemical reactor on the site of Australia’s largest brewery, Foster’s in Brisbane. It is expected to generate enough electricity to power a large household around the clock by using a fraction – about 2,500 litres (550 gallons) – of the 2.5 million litres of waste water the brewery generates each day.
If the venture succeeds, the scientists believe that the technology could be expanded and used at many breweries, wineries and food-processing plants to generate electricity.
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