Canadian award-winning winemaker Inniskillin has teamed up with alternative energy firm StormFisher Biogas to use grapes leftover from wine production to make electricity. The grapeskins and seeds, previously shipped to landfills, will now be used to produce methane gas that will be used as fuel. It is anticipated that up to 2,000 tonnes of wine by-products will be recycled in this fashion.
Implications - According to Bruce Nicholson, who is a senior winemaker and Inniskillin, the "partnership is a win for residential power consumers, a win for Inniskillin, a win for StormFisher" and a "win for the environment". It certainly is encouraging to see a eco-friendly initiative like this get taken seriously.
What's Driving This Trend
- Wine-generated Biogas
- Winemakers can explore producing biogas from wine by-products, providing a sustainable energy source.
- Waste-to-energy Conversion
- The conversion of wine by-products into energy can be applied to other industries with organic waste, creating a new method of producing sustainable energy.
- Circular Economy
- Implementing circular economy models in industries such as winemaking can lead to sustainable waste management and energy production.
Who This Affects Most
- Winery
- Wineries can explore converting their organic waste into biogas to produce sustainable energy.
- Food and Beverage
- Food and beverage industries can apply waste-to-energy conversion to their organic waste materials and create sustainable energy sources.
- Renewable Energy
- The waste-to-energy conversion process could be harnessed by the renewable energy industry to provide new and more sustainable energy sources.
