Closing the Loop on Brewers’ Spent Grains: Feed the World and Fuel the Brewery

Introduction

The food and beverage industry causes various impacts on the environment and is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. In the brewing industry, the Brewers' Spent Grains (BSG) account for 85% of the waste generated and are currently used as low-value animal feed or disposed of in landfills. No recycling solution exists today on a large scale that would allow upcycling the BSG into its valuable components.

Project Overview

Project LIFE FWFB aims to set up a zero-waste and highly replicable circular business model that fully upcycles the BSG into BSG proteins and BSG fibres. The project is based on a pilot prototype, previously developed by Duynie on smaller scales, which consists of an innovative separation technology capable of:

1. Extracting Proteins

   • Extracting the proteins from BSG at a high protein yield. The BSG proteins will be used in higher quality protein products (thanks to higher protein concentration) for feed and food applications as a replacement for resource- and carbon-intensive protein sources.

2. Generating Quality Fibres

   • Generating quality fibres with a small protein fraction. The BSG fibres will be used as biomass with a higher thermal efficiency in the brewery's combustion plant (thanks to the smaller protein fraction) for the thermal needs of the brewery as a replacement for natural gas.

Separation Technology

The separation technology itself is based on a mechanical method (as opposed to the current solvent/chemical extraction methods) and on an energy-efficient process (ability to recover waste heat from other processes in the brewery).

Environmental Impact

No residual components are generated by the separation process since the wastewater is also treated to produce biogas through the brewery's wastewater treatment plant.

Implementation

The pilot prototype will be operationalized on a large scale in a real Heineken brewing environment. Several replications are expected during the project lifetime, including at Heineken's breweries.