Jack Daniel's whiskey waste becomes natural gas thanks to Madison firm

Business and local economy reporter

A submitted photo shows a dairy digester project BIOFerm completed in Wisconsin using the the same type of anaerobic digester technology that will be used at the forthcoming Jack Daniel's plant.

A Madison company is helping to build an innovative system that will turn the leftovers from Jack Daniel's whiskey-making process into natural gas and liquid fertilizer, one they say will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

Making whiskey involves mashing grain with water and yeast, then fermenting that mix. The process yields alcohol and carbon dioxide, as well as a watery waste product called stillage. Distillers have to figure out how to offload that stillage, typically by drying it, separating it and then sending it to farms to feed to livestock. But that method is energy-intensive, and it can be hard to find enough farmers to use all the stillage, creating bottlenecks for distillers looking to produce more alcohol.

That was the problem facing Jack Daniel's as it sought to expand its Lynchburg, Tennessee facility to meet a growing demand for its Tennessee whiskey around the world.

Enter 3 Rivers Energy Partners, a renewable energy company that specializes in designing and building renewable natural gas projects, and BIOFerm, a Madison company that has designed, built and maintained anaerobic digesters and natural gas systems across the U.S. and Europe, including at Dane County's landfill.

BioFERM build this gas upgrading project for the Dane County Sanitary Landfill.

Together, they’re building an anaerobic digester that will turn the stillage into natural gas, and a biogas upgrading facility that will remove carbon dioxide and corrosive elements like water and hydrogen sulfide from the sought-after methane, producing a purer product called renewable natural gas.

The distillery will sell that gas, which can replace fossil fuels in heaters, vehicles and more.

"It's a perfect solution that helps them increase production while also sustainably taking care of their byproduct and producing renewable energy," said BIOFerm senior application engineer Noah Carlson. "I think there's a lot of positives here, and it solves a problem for Jack Daniel's."

John Rivers, CEO of 3 Rivers Energy Partners, said in a press release that the project fulfills his company's mission. "As a leading force in the renewable energy sector, we're committed to helping our partners and the broader community harness the full potential of their resources."

There are hundreds of thousands of anaerobic digesters in the U.S. Many create natural gas from cow manure, while others process landfill waste, food scraps or other material. To his knowledge, none process the waste products left behind from making alcohol. "In this application, it's the first of its kind," Carlson said.

The two companies have been preparing for the project for two years, a process that included running lab tests on the stillage so that they could optimize the digester for it. They also estimated how much renewable natural gas the system will produce, which lets the distillery estimate how much money it will make by selling that gas.

According to their calculations, the plant will produce enough renewable natural gas each year to replace 700 tanker trucks of gasoline, enough to fuel 11,500 cars.

The anaerobic digestion process will produce its own waste product that will soon find its way to farms around the facility. Called digestate, it contains the same nutrients as the starting material but in "a more bioavailable form," making it a good fit to replace synthetic fertilizers, Carlson said. The team anticipates that the process will generate enough liquid fertilizer to support more than 20,000 acres of regenerative agriculture, he said.

The new process is also expected to reduce the distillery's energy use by around 30%, Carlson said, since the distillery will no longer be drying all of its stillage. He said the company plans to continue drying some of its stillage for now to meet demand from area farmers before eventually increasing the share of stillage it sends to the digester.

Jack Daniel's did not respond to a request for comment.

Construction is underway on the new plant, which is expected to begin supplying natural gas to the energy pipeline by May 2024.

The project may be the first of its kind, but Carlson thinks it won't be the last, as anyone distilling alcohol or producing ethanol from corn could consider installing a similar set up.

"This could mean a lot for the other distilleries in the country, as well as all of the ethanol facilities," Carlson said. "Anaerobic digestion pairs very, very well with ethanol, alcohol production. It takes care of a byproduct and provides diversified revenue options for that byproduct that will really be applicable all over the country.

"So I think in the next coming years, we'll see several other projects just like this come to fruition, and BIOFerm is here to help with all of those."

As the Cap Times’ business and local economy reporter, Natalie Yahr writes about challenges and opportunities facing workers, entrepreneurs and job seekers. Before moving to Madison in 2018, she lived in New Orleans, where she trained as a Spanish-English interpreter and helped adult students earn high school equivalencies. Support journalism like this by becoming a Cap Times member. To comment on this story, submit a letter to the editor.

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