Trapped carbon could find perfect partner in pints of beer

An innovative trial to capture carbon dioxide could be used in alcoholic drinks.

The Drax power company is working on new clean technology, called bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS), at a former coal plant in the north of England.

If the trial is a success the carbon produced in burning biomass could be used in a variety of other industries, including beer production.

It is estimated that one tonne of carbon dioxide could be stored each day, enough to be used in 32,000 pints of beer, or 5.7 million over the six-month trial.

Drax has already held meetings with the British Beer & Pub Association to discuss the possibility. The beverage industry was recently impacted by a European-wide shortage of available carbon dioxide, used to provide the fizz in alcoholic drinks, among other things.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, commented: “This pilot not only has the potential to ensure the UK meets its climate targets, but for the carbon captured to also help to keep the nation’s beer from going flat – and we’d certainly raise a glass to that.”

Brigid Simmonds, CEO of British Beer & Pub Association, said: “Beer is the nation’s favourite alcoholic beverage and on average pubs serve as much as 10 million pints of beer per day, so the recent shortfall of CO2 was most unwelcome. We hope that these discussions with Drax Group and the potential to increase access to a new source of CO2 in the UK will help ensure that a shortage does not happen again.”

Drax operates the largest power plant in the United Kingdom, consisting of four units which have historically burnt coal. In recent years, the company has converted three of the units to burn wood pellets instead. The final plant is currently undergoing the same upgrade to use renewable power.