Tunweni Brewery

The Tunweni Brewery in Namibia was the first commercial application of the Zero Emissions Research Initiative (ZERI). Team members picked a brewery because of the simplicity of its processes, the limited number of waste streams, and the possibility of reusing them on site.

Examples of zero-emission processes at the Tunweni site include:

• Fibres from the spent grain are recovered for the cultivation of mushrooms;
• Earthworms that feed on the left-over proteins are sold as chicken feed;
• Marketable algae are produced in the alkaline waste water;
• Methane gas is produced from industrial and human wastes using a biodigester;
• 'Waste' streams are also used to farm fish in a constructed pond.

A detailed report of the Tunweni operation, based on a site visit, has been written by researchers from the 'ZeroEmission' consortium in Germany.