Stockholm: Having reservations about drinking recycled sewage water? Have a beer! Swedish experts have used recycled sewage water, passed it through delicate membranes and cleaning processes including reverse osmosis and turned it into the country’s first hot-selling beer.
The experts at the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, famous beer-maker Carlsberg and New Carnegie Brewery have joined hands to use the water from the city to brew beer and to overcome the mental block regarding drinking of recycled water.
The popularity of the recycled water beer PU:REST, which was launched in May this year, has soared with 6,000 litres of it being sold in the market so far, IVL expert Rupal Deshmukh said.
She said the recycled water is so clean that they had to add salt to it.
It is all about acceptance of that water which is more of a psychological issue, Deshmukh said, adding that the institute is not in the business of selling alcohol and the project is to prove a point of recycling waste water to potable levels.
The IVL has set up a pilot and demonstration facility in Hammarby Sjostadsverk to recycle sewage water by passing it through delicate membranes and cleaning processes and turning it into cleanest possible water, said project manager at IVL Staffan Filipsson.
“Resistance to drinking reused waste water is quite high. We were working on how to overcome this resistance. Technically drinking reused water is not a problem at all but the bigger issue is overcoming mental blocks,” Filipsson said.
–PTI
