Brewers support Algae Biofuel
Well, they support it in the sense that it won’t attribute to the rising cost of grain.
The CBK, which represents such brewers as Heineken, advocates a “second generation” of biofuel, which are produced from non-food crops.
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Second-generation methods use much less energy and land, which supporters of the processes say ease competition for land.
“There are industries working very hard to find out the best way to gain from second-generation fuels. It has to do with fermentation and distillation techniques,” Verhoek said.
“There is also at the moment a discussion on algae from the sea, which can produce kerosene, which is very promising.”
Verhoek said Dutch beer brewers and other members of the food industry had appealed for more government funding for second-generation biofuels.
Rising grain prices have hit brewers’ profits.
Heineken said last week that while it posted a 7.4 percent rise in operating profit in the first half of 2008, its raw materials and input costs rose 15 percent and it expected them to rise by 8 percent next year.
The moral of this story? Support algae biofuel. It leads to cheaper beer.
