Spent Grain From Breweries Could be Repurposed as Fuel
A new study shows how barley can be converted into carbon.
Leftover grain from breweries, which might otherwise end up in landfills, could be used to heat your home.
Researchers from the UK have created an inexpensive, environmentally friendly technique that converts barley into a renewable energy. Their work, published in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, shows that two chemicals (phosphoric acid and potassium hydroxide), could be used to transform grain into carbon used for fuel.
Breweries boil vast amounts of barley to make beer, and is then disposed of in different ways. Some brewers are able to sell that grain to farmers as feed for livestock. But a lot also ends up being dumped in landfills. Researchers estimate that, in the EU alone, breweries waste 3.4 million tons of grain each year.
One kilogram of grain could produce enough activated carbon to span across 100 soccer fields, they say.
Dr Ahmed Osman, lead author of the study, said this new technique creates an opportunity to utilize locally produced resources while also reducing emissions.
“Across the globe, there is a real demand for carbon as it is used to create fuel for households, parts for water filters, and charcoal for barbecues,” he said.
The approach involves drying the grain out before treating it with the two chemicals. Osman said both phosphoric acid and potassium hydroxide are low-cost solutions. Researchers are left with activated carbon and carbon nanotubes—high-value materials that have been in demand within the energy sector.
“If we are able to take something that would otherwise be a waste and turn it into a useful biofuel, it can only be a good thing for our planet. It could really help to solve global waste and energy problems,” Osman said.
Researchers say they’re now exploring ways that this method can be commercialized.
Follow us
Republish!
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Want to republish a Modern Farmer story?
We are happy for Modern Farmer stories to be shared, and encourage you to republish our articles for your audience. When doing so, we ask that you follow these guidelines:
Please credit us and our writers
For the author byline, please use “Author Name, Modern Farmer.” At the top of our stories, if on the web, please include this text and link: “This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.”
Please make sure to include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.
At the bottom of the story, please include the following text:
“Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at <link>Modern Farmer</link>.”
Use our widget
We’d like to be able to track our stories, so we ask that if you republish our content, you do so using our widget (located on the left hand side of the article). The HTML code has a built-in tracker that tells us the data and domain where the story was published, as well as view counts.
Check the image requirements
It’s your responsibility to confirm you're licensed to republish images in our articles. Some images, such as those from commercial providers, don't allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. Copyright terms are generally listed in the image caption and attribution. You are welcome to omit our images or substitute with your own. Charts and interactive graphics follow the same rules.
Don’t change too much. Or, ask us first.
Articles must be republished in their entirety. It’s okay to change references to time (“today” to “yesterday”) or location (“Iowa City, IA” to “here”). But please keep everything else the same.
If you feel strongly that a more material edit needs to be made, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’re happy to discuss it with the original author, but we must have prior approval for changes before publication.
Special cases
-
Extracts. You may run the first few lines or paragraphs of the article and then say: “Read the full article at Modern Farmer” with a link back to the original article.
-
Quotes. You may quote authors provided you include a link back to the article URL.
-
Translations. These require writer approval. To inquire about translation of a Modern Farmer article, contact us at [email protected]
-
Signed consent / copyright release forms. These are not required, provided you are following these guidelines.
-
Print. Articles can be republished in print under these same rules, with the exception that you do not need to include the links.
Tag us
When sharing the story on social media, please tag us using the following: - Twitter (@ModFarm) - Facebook (@ModernFarmerMedia) - Instagram (@modfarm)
Use our content respectfully
Modern Farmer is a nonprofit and as such we share our content for free and in good faith in order to reach new audiences. Respectfully,
-
No selling ads against our stories. It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads.
-
Don’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. We understand that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarize or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
Keep in touch
We want to hear from you if you love Modern Farmer content, have a collaboration idea, or anything else to share. As a nonprofit outlet, we work in service of our community and are always open to comments, feedback, and ideas. Contact us at [email protected].Spent Grain From Breweries Could be Repurposed as Fuel
by Lindsay Campbell, Modern Farmer
December 2, 2019
Modern Farmer Weekly
Solutions Hub
Innovations, ideas and inspiration. Actionable solutions for a resilient food system.
ExploreShare With Us
We want to hear from Modern Farmer readers who have thoughtful commentary, actionable solutions, or helpful ideas to share.
Submit
In response to Edd Anderson below: maybe you should read before spouting off. The article obviously says that some brewers give their grain to farmers for feed, but a lot still ends up going to landfill.
The idea of using spent grain as fuel when it is an excellent fertilizer as it is or as added to a compost is foolish. the grain as it comes from the brewery is 77% water. the cost of drying would be energy intensive. Breweries run all year but solar drying works only when the sun shines. I collect spent grain and feed it to my chickens, add it to my compost piles/ i% nitrogen/ spread it on my fields. If I had animals it is an excellent feed. If I baked bread it is also an excellent addition. Please… Read more »