Saving the planet one beer at a time

14 June, 2015

Us Kiwis love a cold one, and we could soon be saving the planet every time we pop the top off a beer. DB Export have announced plans of an attempt at producing a commercially viable biofuel, based on the by-products of beer brewing.

By using ethanol — derived from beer production — and mixing it with regular petroleum, they hope to have their ‘Brewtroleum’ ready by July 2015. These biofuels emit less carbon than petrol when burnt, so it may not be long before we have a legitimate excuse to buy a box.

The brewing process leaves dregs of yeast slurry, which tests by DB Export and independent specialists have found can be stripped of ethanol. This can then be distilled and blended in a 10:90 ratio with 98 octane petrol to create an E10 (10-per-cent ethanol) biofuel.

“Brewtroleum presented the opportunity to take the natural by-product of the brewing process and turn it into something that can genuinely help the environment,” said Sean O’Donnell, DB Export’s Head of Domestic Marketing. “What’s more, men can help to save the world just by doing what they already love — drinking DB Export.”

The first sample of DB Export bioethanol will be ready for testing in a few weeks, and, if it is successful, Brewtroleum will be made available through one of the country’s major fuel retailers. We’ll be keeping an eye out for further news — we’re all for more reasons to feel good about drinking beer!

To finish first, first, you must build a winner

Can-Am royalty
Only three M20s were built, including the car that was destroyed at Road Atlanta. This car was later rebuilt. All three cars were sold at the end of the 1972 season. One of the cars would score another Can-Am victory in 1974, driven by a privateer, but the M20’s day was done. Can-Am racing faded away at the end of that season and was replaced by Formula 5000.
These days the cars are valued in the millions. It was unlikely that I would ever have seen one in the flesh if it hadn’t been that one day my editor asked me if I would mind popping over to Taranaki and having a look at a pretty McLaren M20 that somebody had built in their shed.
That is how I came to be standing by the car owned and built by truck driver Leon Macdonald.

Lunch with … Roly Levis

Lunching was not allowed during Covid 19 Lockdowns so our correspondent recalled a lunch he had with legendary New Zealand racing driver Rollo Athol Levis shortly before he died on 1 October 2013 at the age of 88. Michael Clark caught up with Roly and members of his family over vegetable soup