Some Alternative Strategies Applied to Brewery Spent Grains for the Development of Sustainable Recycling Solutions in the Agro-Food Industry
Some Alternative Strategies Applied to Brewery Spent Grains for the Development of Sustainable Recycling Solutions in the Agro-Food Industry

Author(s): Luljeta Pinguli, Ilirjan Malollari
Subject(s): Agriculture, Energy and Environmental Studies
Published by: Udruženje ekonomista i menadžera Balkana
Keywords: Brewer’s spent grain (BSG); By-products; Recovery and recycle; Stabilization; Pretreatment methods
Summary/Abstract: Brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is a raw material produced during beer production that has a high potential for sustainable reuse. BSG is considered an important feedstock for producing several products. Brewer's spent grain (BSG) is the main by-product obtained after wort production commonly used as animal feed. Recently research work has focused on application in different areas, because of BSG’s low cost, large availability, and valuable chemical composition. Brewer's spent grain forms 85% of the total by-products generated. Of the breweries that produce potential by-products, their recovery is another cost-effective pollution prevention option that can provide a facility with significant economic benefits while simultaneously reducing waste production. BSG water content is around 80 - 85 %. Dry BSG content has around 60-63% hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, protein content is around 22-25%, lipids 8-9%, phenolic compounds 1.7-2%, ash 2.5%. In Albania spent grain is used as feed for animals without any other pretreatment. Our experiment is focused on spent grain pretreatment and stabilization techniques to extend BSG’s life. BSG pretreatment/stabilization techniques can be employed as a function of their future destination such as energy production, food additives production, using BSG as a substrate for enzyme production, etc. In this paper, we have used three different pretreatment/stabilization procedures. Thin layer drying technique, alginate treatment of BSG, and vacuum filtration of BSG with cold and hot water. For each sample, we have monitored drying kinetics based on the remaining water content and BSG’s life.

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