Foster’s (Australian for beer) has decided that they will generate clean energy from old beer water by using sugar eating bacteria.

The experimental technology will install a microbial fuel cell at a Foster’s Group brewery near Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state. The fuel cell is essentially a battery in which bacteria consume water-soluble brewing waste such as sugar, starch and alcohol.The battery produces electricity plus clean water, said Prof. Jurg Keller, the university’s wastewater expert.

 The complex technology harnesses the chemical energy that the bacteria releases from the organic material, converting it into electrical energy.

The 660-gallon fuel cell will be 250 times bigger than a prototype that has been operating effectively at the university laboratory for three months, Keller said.

Once developed big, blue, used beer water collection cells will be located outside major sport arenas and NASCAR tracks.

Update: Seems this has been done for at least five years at a little brewery in Ft. Collins. New Belgium Beer has a real committment for making green beer.