SYDNEY, November 18 (Reuters)-Australian beer manufacturers have developed a new approach to climate change: capture the carbon dioxide produced by the fermentation of hops and feed it to microalgae.

Experts say that the carbon emitted by fermenting hops to make six packs of beer may take two days for a tree to absorb. To solve this problem, the founder of Sydney's Young Henrys Brewery worked with scientists to build two "bioreactors" filled with trillions of tiny organisms.

In the company's two 400-liter (105.6 gallon) bioreactors at the company's brewery in Sydney, algae absorb carbon, then multiply and convert it into oxygen. Oscar McMahon, co-founder of Young Henrys, told Reuters that the amount of oxygen produced by each bioreactor is equivalent to two hectares of bushes.

On November 9, 2021, a microalgae bioreactor was installed on the floor of the Young Henrys Brewery in Sydney, Australia. REUTERS/Cordelia Hsu

McMahon told Reuters: "We can demolish the entire site and plant trees, and... it will take years for them to complete the same amount of carbon storage and oxygen creation as these two bioreactors." "As a kind of urban carbon sequestration. And oxygen production solutions, it’s exciting."

The team of Young Henrys, a scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, also joined the Australian Meat and Livestock Group to study whether algae can be used to offset methane emissions from Australian livestock.

Professor Peter Ralph, Executive Director of the Climate Change Group at the University of Technology Sydney, said: “We are not digging up something, making a product and then throwing it away, but recycling it. We will actually use our carbon efficiently.”

Australia is one of the world's largest coal and natural gas producers. It has passed the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he will not legislate to set the goal.

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