Novel Approach to the Biorefinery of Brewery Spent Grain

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in using residues from the agricultural and food industries as low-cost materials to produce value-added products for food and feed formulations reducing, therefore, the environmental impact caused by their disposal, as well as the production cost.

Brewer's spent grain (BSG) is a cheaper solid residue with a high protein and fibre content, obtained after separation of the wort, representing about 85% of the waste products from the brewing process. Composition of BSG (moisture, protein, pentosans, lignin, starch and β-glucans, cellulose, lipids, ash and total phenolics) depends on different factors including the type of barley and time of harvest, properties of hop and other adjuncts and brewery technology used.

Considering the BSG composition, there are a great number of possibilities for recycling this residue. Thus, different applications for BSG have been proposed including its use as livestock feed, food additive (bread and bakery products), fertilizer, energy recover by generation of biogas or direct combustion. Nowadays, the biorefinery concept aims the translation of these residues into new products: i) through the recovery of compounds such as proteins, antioxidants and hydroxycinnamic acids (ferulic acid and p-coumaric), among others, ii) the use of the main fractions (cellulose and hemicellulose) for production of enzymes, lactic acid, bioethanol xylitol and pullulan, iii) as adsorbent for removing heavy metals and colorants from effluents, and, iv) immobilization of various compounds.

All these BSG applications could contribute to its reliable and sustainable use, allowing the achievement of the status of green environmental policy and cleaner technology and preservation of the environment. However, high-scale production of value-added products from BSG is scarce. This special issue aims to contribute with the latest achievements in this management of BSG to produce high-add value compounds.  

Prof. Dr. Nelson P. Guerra
Prof. Dr. José Manuel Domínguez González
Guest Editors

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• • Brewer's spent grain • BSG valorization • Enzyme production • Animal feed • Food applications