Algae Becomes This Brewery’s Weapon Against Climate Change

In an effort to fight climate change, an Australian brewery is using micro-algae – tiny photosynthetic plants that create half of the oxygen on our planet – to capture carbon dioxide that is released from beer.

Young Henrys Brewery has partnered with the University of Technology Sydney to capture the CO2 off the top of a beer fermenter and feed it to the micro-algae. The algae then consumes the CO2 and releases oxygen back into the atmosphere. 

Oscar McMahon, co-founder of Young Henrys brewery in Newtown, Sydney, Australia explains how the CO2 from the beer and the micro-algae “naturally balance each other out,” stopping CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. The brewers believe this process releases as much oxygen as two hectares of bushland, and that the efficacy of the process could allow it to be an important factor for the evolution of the urban environment.

Other uses of algae, such as bioplastics and garden plastics, are also currently being looked into. Professor Peter Ralph of the University of Technology Sydney states, “The planet needs our help, but the solutions are here now.”