End-to-end processing

GEA technologies for commercially viable co-products manufacture

As regulations on waste, emissions, resource use and recycling are likely to tighten, it makes sense for manufacturers to focus on reducing their environmental footprint. It’s our aim here at GEA to develop and supply the equipment, digital solutions and expertise that can let our customers innovate sustainably as they turn brewery waste into valuable co-products, and support the global vision of enabling a truly circular economy. And while there are a number of definitions of what a circular economy means, the Ellen Macarthur Foundation sums up the three main principles¹ eliminating waste and pollution; circulating products and materials at their highest value; and regenerating nature. “In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. The circular economy tackles climate change and other global challenges, like biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution, by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources¹.”

Exploring the upcycling potential of brewer's byproducts

Valorizing brewery byproducts isn’t just about generating profits, it’s about finding new ways of supporting sustainable biobased manufacturing and fostering innovation that will underly a circular economy, as well as turning what has traditionally been a cost burden into a true profit center. 

Today - and for just about every sector of industry - a circular economy is not the norm. As the United Nations Development Program points out, our current economic systems are linear, and only 7.2% of used materials are cycled back into our economies after use². Product design, extended lifespan, recycling, and repurposing/regeneration will all play a role in converting linear, to circularized economies. And one way of doing this is to help industry utilize waste streams as sustainable, and commercially viable resources for greener manufacturing³. 

The food industry is already innovating to reduce, recycle, and repurpose waste. Scotland-based biotech company, MiAlgae, for example, describes how it is recycling byproducts from the whisky industry for use growing omega 3-rich microalgae, and so reduce reliance on wild-caught fish as a source of this dietary supplement. Poland’s technology company Ecobean, explains how it is converting spent coffee grounds into products including biodegradable flower pots, and is extracting oil fractions from coffee grounds that can be used as bioadditives for fuels. In Finland, CH-Bioforce says that its biomass biofractionation technology can extract key biomaterials from many forms of biomass. These materials can then be exploited as new feedstocks for applications in sectors ranging from chemicals, to textiles and packaging.

So, while most of the millions of tons of BSG and BSY produced globally by the brewery industry every year is currently sold off cheaply for animal food, these byproducts afford industry a rich, enduring, and year-round source of exploitable protein- and fiber-packed components.