Malt from the brewing industry is capable of providing renewable energy through biogas

Pre-treatment of malt bagasse produces purified biogas in methane, generating vehicle fuel

Four Brazilian scientists, together with two others from United States, revealed the gain in renewable electrical and thermal energy obtained by malt bagasse. It turns out that the residue, abundant in the brewing industry, can be treated with ultrasound, then subjected to anaerobic digestion (a microbiological process that involves consumption of organic matter and production of methane), and thus generating biogas as vehicle fuel.

The innovative process of renewable energy using malt bagasse, used in the brewing industry, was developed at the Bioengineering and Water and Waste Treatment Laboratory (Biotar) of the Faculty of Food Engineering at the State University of Campinas (FEA-Unicamp). The biogas was produced with 56% methane, 27% more than that obtained without the application of ultrasound.

The biogas undergoes methane purification, and thus can be used as biofuel with a much lower carbon footprint compared to fuels from conventional fossil sources. In addition, with the burning of methane in cogenerators it is possible to produce electricity and heat to be used by the brewing industry itself. The final residue of this process is capable of resulting in biofertilizers, which can replace mineral fertilizers.

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 The leader of the research group that developed the biogas extracted from malt bagasse, Tânia Forster-Carneiro, recalls that food industries are required to have wastewater treatment systems. However, not all companies treat organic solid waste.

“Research aimed at valuing organic solid waste is valuable for industry and also for society. In this article, specifically, we applied an ultrasound pre-treatment – ​​a still incipient technology, usually applied on a laboratory scale – and with that we obtained greater methane production. The results were very good”.

Tânia Forster-Carneiro – leader of the group that developed biogas from malt bagasse.

Renewable energy through malt bagasse: mass balance X renewable energy generation

A determining factor for the study to gain notoriety in the academic community was the detailed calculation of the mass and energy balance of all input and output flows of the process. According to Tânia Forster-Carneiro, for each ton of malt bagasse it is possible to produce 0,23 megawatt-hour in electricity. “There are few researches that detail the calculations of energy production from methane”, said the scientist.

The potential to reduce greenhouse gases from renewable energy generation is something to highlight, as the day will come when all industries will be required to treat the waste they generate. “Today there are no industries that carry out this type of treatment on a large scale because, even though anaerobic digestion technology exists and is viable for liquid and solid waste, for solid and lignocellulosic waste, further studies are still required”, comments Tânia Forster-Carneiro.

Partnership between researchers and brewing industry

The experiment also highlights the good relationship between FEA-Unicamp and the brewing industry. During the study period, there were technical visits and donation of solid malt waste. In one of the breweries, it was contacted that the production of up to 250 tons of malt bagasse per week. The residue is donated for animal feed. However, the idea is to be able to also take advantage of them to produce their own energy.

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