The much-loved combination of beer and crisps is being harnessed for the first time to tackle climate change.
Crisps firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will slash CO2 emissions from its manufacturing process by 70%.
The technology will use CO2 captured from beer fermentation in a brewery, which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertiliser.
It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year’s potato crop.
Creating fertiliser normally produces high CO2 emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertiliser without generating CO2.
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So, the beer-and-crisps combo performs a dual function.
It stops the emission of brewery CO2 into the atmosphere – and it saves on the CO2 normally generated by fertiliser manufacture.
This ingenious double whammy was developed with a grant from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm.
The fertiliser was trialled on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.
A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this.
The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way.
The firm has installed an anaerobic digester, which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce useful methane.
The methane is burned to make electricity for the crisp-frying process – so this saves on burning fossil fuel gas.
The new system will go a step further by taking away potato “cake” left after digestion – and stirring the brewery CO2 into it to make an enriched fertiliser which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.
It’s an example of scientists finding ways to use CO2 emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.
