Beer brewing wastes to energy, Part 2

So not only does the brewing process produce a large spent grain waste stream, but brewing also produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.  Carbon dioxide is a by product during the fermentation step of brewing as the yeast eat the sugars present in the wort and turn it into alcohol.  So how can this waste stream be used to generate energy, Solix Biofuels of Fort Collins, CO thinks that it has come up with a way.  Solix Biofuels is a new biofuels company that has partnered with Colorado State University to research and find a way to implement energy from algae.  What make this process so exciting is that algae only need sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow.  Sunlight is not hard to come by and neither is carbon dioxide when you are next door to New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins.  Solix Biofuels is conveniently located next door to New Belgium Brewery, where almost 5,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide are produced a year from the brewing processes.  So with the carbon dioxide from New Belgium, Solix Biofuels has come up with a technology that will grow and harvest the lipid rich algae produced.  When algae grow they produce large amounts of lipids or oils for their overall size.  By injecting carbon dioxide into the a water algae mixture contained in a transparent bioreactor the algae can grow and produce oils.  After a certain period of time the algae can be harvested.  After harvesting the algae can be squeezed and pressed to extract all of the oils contained within each algae.  These oils can then be further refined into liquid bio-diesel.