The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Houston, TX will have 55% of it energy needs met from landfill biogas. It’s a big move for the country’s leading brewer- AB holds a 49.2% share of U.S. beer sales and is a subsidiary of the world’s leading brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev- and, if the program is a success, could bring the entire industry along with it. Landfill biogas consists of roughly 50% methane, a green house gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and is created when organic material decomposes in landfills. It can be converted into alternative fuels, heat, steam or used to generate electricity.

The project is a partnership between the brewery, Republic Services (a leading provider of solid waste collection) and Ameresco Services (the largest independent energy services company in North America). Pipelines connect the brewery to McCarty Road Landfill, the main recipient of refuse from the residents and businesses in east Houston and surrounding suburbs.

In the project’s press release, AB explains, “the benefit of this clean energy project is equivalent to planting more than 121,050 acres of pine or fir trees or taking 97,550 motor vehicles off the road. Additional gas from the McCarty Road landfill also is captured, processed and sold to a local utility.”

Check out our previous posts on various green initiatives by brewers.

[source: Anheuser-Busch, PR Newswire]