British snack food manufacturer Walkers will be reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by using beer and potato waste to produce fertilizer.
The potato chips company Walkers has adopted a technology that it claims will reduce its CO2 emissions by 70% by capturing CO2 from beer fermentation in a brewery and then mix it with potato waste to produce fertilizer.
Beer-and-crisps technology
Walkers will use the technique to fertilize UK fields for next year's potato crop. While normal fertilizer production results to high CO2 emissions, this new technology does not generate CO2 to create fertilizer.
The technology, which was developed with by a 14-employee startup called CCm using a UK government grant, performs a dual function of stopping the emission of brewery CO2 into the atmosphere and eliminating the CO2 normally generated thru fertilizer production.
While Walker has already decided to adopt the technology, it has not yet decided which brewer it will be implemented on.
The CCm technology is a new addition to the existing carbon-saving techniques already being developed.
Walkers has already installed an anaerobic digester, which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce useful methane, which it then burns to generate electricity for the crisp-frying process, reducing its consumption of fossil fuel gas.
The new system will elevate this process by taking the potato "cake" left after bacterial digestion and mixing it with the brewery CO2 to create an enriched fertilizer that helps bring back carbon into to the soil and encourage plant growth.
The CCm technique falls under the industrial category of Carbon Capture and Usage (CCU), a sister technology to the more widespread Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) which captures emissions from chimneys, compresses them and pumps them into underground rocks where they can’t heat the climate.
PepsiCo and climate change
Katy Armstrong, manager of the Carbon Utilisation Centre at Sheffield University, said: "We need products for the way we live - and everything we do has an impact. We need to manufacture our products without increasing CO2 emissions, and if we can use waste CO2 to help make them, so much the better."
The European Union is encouraging all industries to adopt the principle of circular economy, in which wastes are turned into raw materials, in order to achieve the goal of zero emissions by 2050.
PepsiCo, the brand owner of Walkers, said it is considering adopting the CCm project on a bigger scale by feeding oats and corn with the "circular" fertilizer.
David Wilkinson, Senior Director of European Agriculture for PepsiCo Europe, said: "This innovation could provide learnings for the whole of the food system, enabling the agriculture sector to play its part in combating climate change."
"This is just the beginning of an ambitious journey, we’re incredibly excited to trial the fertilizer on a bigger scale and discover its full potential," Wilkinson added.
Peter Hammond, Chief Technology Officer at CCm, mentioned: "There has been an increase in public awareness that we should get something done about the climate – and lot of baby steps have come together to make something significant."
"The key challenge for us as a business wasn’t getting down the cost – it was marketing the fertilizer. This link with PepsiCo takes care of that for us," Hammond continued.
