Upcycling of brewers' spent grain liquid
New processing strategies can make the remaining protein of brewers' spent grain available for human nutrition. However, the utilisation of the obtained brewers' spent grain press water remains a challenge.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
- Institute(s) Consumer-focused Food Production
- Research unit(s) Food Process Technology and Sustainable Innovation
- Funding organisation Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (Bundesverwaltung)
- Duration (planned) 01.02.2025 - 30.09.2025
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Head of project
Robert Spiess
Jonas Lonfat -
Project staff
Mireia Farnós Espuny
Prof. Dr. Christoph Denkel -
Partner
Bundesamt für Umwelt BAFU
Upgrain AG - Keywords Brewers' spent grain, upcycling, beer, side stream
Situation
Together with the Locher brewery, UpGrain AG has developed a process in which various products are obtained from brewers' spent grains. The proteins obtained by this have a lower greenhouse gas impact than plant proteins because the impact from primary production is eliminated. Individual products made from the recovered barley proteins and fibres are already commercially available. To ensure that the process is as sustainable as possible, the spent grains are dried mechanically as far as possible. This produces large quantities of press water. Its organic load is too high to be either discharged directly into the waste water treatment or to be fermented in a biogas plant. Press water treatment is therefore a crucial point in the entire process. At the same time, it is another side stream which could be utilised in a second step. The aim of this project is to develop a process for separating the solids from the press water to lower its organic load.
