From beer to breakthrough: Baton Rouge partners are turning CO2 into ethanol

A chance conversation at a Mid City gym in 2022 sparked a clean energy startup now gaining national recognition. 

As Business Report writes in its latest issue, Tin Roof Brewery founder William McGehee teamed up with LSU professor John Flake—who had developed a technology to convert carbon dioxide, a beer fermentation byproduct, into ethanol. The two launched Encore CO2, later bringing in engineer Jordan Losavio. 

​​The company specializes in commercializing CO2 clean energy capture to create a variety of potential products and successfully secured a coveted National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grant, as well as proof of concept funding from Future Use of Energy in Louisiana, or FUEL, the statewide initiative led by LSU to promote clean energy research and ventures.

Encore CO2’s process, referred to as electrolysis technology, turns CO2 into ethanol, which can then be distilled or converted to a variety of uses, such as consumable alcohol for the purpose of producing hard seltzer. There are potential large-scale pharmaceutical and polymer uses, as well.

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