Engineering researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder have brewed up something awesome from brewery run-off: they created low-cost lithium-ion battery electrodes.
According to the research paper, which was published in the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces, a single barrel of beer uses around seven barrels of water to make, and the wastewater needs to be filtered before it can be thrown away. The researchers found out that the same byproduct could make a perfect and freely available raw material that can be used in battery production.
The researchers developed a new bio-manufacturing process that turns brewery’ wastewater into a fungal pool for growing the “most efficient naturally-derived lithium-ion battery electrodes.”
This will be good news for both breweries and battery makers as they will get raw materials they need to create fuel cells. Therefore, breweries won’t need to deal with the expensive process of filtering their wastewater before disposal.
The researchers have already partnered up with Avery Brewing in Boulder to begin their testing.
Cheers to that!
