The MillerCoors Trenton Brewery in Butler County, Ohio, and Colorado biotechnology firm Nutrinsic Corp. have teamed up to convert wastewater from the beer-making process into fish and animal feed, according to a report.
Nutrinsic has built a multimillion-dollar addition onto MillerCoors’ water reclamation facility to capture wastewater and convert it into single-cell proteins. Protein production is in the testing phase and will be tweaked until the protein is ready to sell to farmers and feed suppliers.
The process alters the water to help microorganisms that produce protein grow. The protein is then harvested, concentrated, sterilized and dried. Packaged under the brand name ProFloc, it will then be used as a substitute for other types of feed such as fish meal or used as a feed ingredient.
“Our vision as a company is to make a contribution to meet expanding protein needs,” said a Nutrinsic spokeswoman, adding that the effort is also aimed at sustainability.
“We work with food and beverage processors like MillerCoors to recover nutrients from their byproduct that would be otherwise wasted,” she said.
The process will divert about 20,000 tons of wastewater that previously was applied as fertilizer for farming. The rest of the solids will continue to be used for fertilizer.
