Introducing the latest chapter of their “Brewing for Tomorrow” sustainability program, Firestone Walker Brewing Company recently took the wraps off of their new carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery system. The state-of-the-art technology is slated to annually recycle some four million pounds of CO2, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere and contributes to global warming.

Yes, you read that right. Four. Million. Pounds.

Carbon dioxide is involved in both ends of the brewing process. During the initial fermentation, when the yeast is turning the sugars in the beer “mixture” into alcohol, it throws off a half a gram of CO2 for each gram of sugar it consumes. Typically, that gas is just released into the atmosphere. At the end of the beer making process, CO2 is also needed for several purposes in the brewery such as purging air from production lines and carbonating the finished product.

In order to accomplish those finishing steps, Firestone Walker previously had to purchase carbon dioxide from an outside supplier. To fulfill the needs of their high production brewery, tanker trucks delivered 40,000 pounds of CO2 three times a week to the Paso Robles campus. 

This new carbon recovery system essentially closes that loop, explains Mark Fisher, a Cal Poly graduate and Firestone Walker’s Head of Engineering. Each of the 12 largest fermentation tanks at the facility produces about 22,000 pounds of CO2 per “batch” of beer. Now all that gas is captured. After going through a complex process of compression, filtering, liquefaction, and re-evaporation, the CO2 is used in the brewery’s final procedures.