By Roderick McClain
02-08-11 –
WHQR recently reported a North Carolina Alcohol Control Commission ban on alcoholic energy drinks. Products like Sparks, Tilt, and 4Loko were pulled in December, and now that they are off the shelf, a Virginia-based company is recycling them into gasoline.
Since the ban, trucks have hauled loads of the drinks to MXI Inc., where alcohol is distilled from the beverages. MXI's Brian Potter says the process takes three or four days.
"We recover the alcohol and sell it as denatured fuel-grade alcohol that gets blended with gasoline pretty much nation-wide now, as the main oxygenate in gasoline."
Potter says packaging materials and water are recycled, too, and it's just a couple days before the alcohol now in powder form is on the road to a fuel terminal.
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