In 2002, New Belgium completed installation of its own process water treatment facility. This cutting-edge technology allows us to clean our process waters (water used for brewing and cleaning throughout the facility) without burdening the municipal system. Through a series of anaerobic (without oxygen) and aerobic (with oxygen) ponds, bacteria feed on the organic waste dramatically decreasing our impact on the Fort Collins municipal plant.

Another remarkable byproduct of this process is the production of methane. As the bacteria consume the organic waste material, methane is produced. We then capture this methane and pipe it back into the building where it fires a combined heat and power engine that produces both electrical and thermal energy. This allows us to power about 10% of the brewery with this byproduct of our process wastewater treatment thereby turning a wastestream into a commodity.