Optimised Fractionation of Brewer’s Spent Grain for a Biorefinery Producing Sugars, Oligosaccharides, and Bioethanol

Abstract

Brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is the main by-product of the beer brewing process. It has a huge potential as a feedstock for bio-based manufacturing processes to produce high-value bio-products, biofuels, and platform chemicals. For the valorisation of BSG in a biorefinery process, efficient fractionation and bio-conversion processes are required. The aim of our study was to develop a novel fractionation of BSG for the production of arabinose, arabino-xylooligomers, xylose, and bioethanol. A fractionation process including two-step acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis steps was investigated and optimised by a response surface methodology and a desirability function approach to fractionate the carbohydrate content of BSG. In the first acidic hydrolysis, high arabinose yield (76%) was achieved under the optimised conditions (90 °C, 1.85 w/w% sulphuric acid, 19.5 min) and an arabinose- and arabino-xylooligomer-rich supernatant was obtained. In the second acidic hydrolysis, the remaining xylan was solubilised (90% xylose yield) resulting in a xylose-rich hydrolysate. The last, enzymatic hydrolysis step resulted in a glucose-rich supernatant (46 g/L) under optimised conditions (15 w/w% solids loading, 0.04 g/g enzyme dosage). The glucose-rich fraction was successfully used for bioethanol production (72% ethanol yield by commercial baker’s yeast). The developed and optimised process offers an efficient way for the value-added utilisation of BSG. Based on the validated models, the amounts of the produced sugars, the composition of the sugar streams and solubilised oligo-saccharides are predictable and variable by changing the reaction conditions of the process.

More than just a beer—the potential applications of by-products from beer manufacturing in polymer technology

“…Another possibility is converting BSG into charcoal bricks, which increases its calorific value from ~ 20 to 27 MJ/kg [87,88]. Multiple works also reported microbial fermentation of brewers' spent grain into bioethanol [89][90][91] or biogas [92][93][94][95], which can be applied as biofuels.…”

Biorefinery of Brewery Spent Grain by Solid-State Fermentation and Ionic Liquids

“…Similarly, Chen et al [ 48 ] obtained a 69.8% hydrolysis yield in corn cob. Other studies achieved a similar hydrolysis yield of glucose (78%) with lower solid load (15%, w / s ) when BSG was pre-treated by chemical treatments [ 49 ]. However, two sequential chemical treatments with sulfuric acid were performed, which are more polluting than the treatment with ionic liquids [ 50 ].…”

Preparation and nutritional properties of xylooligosaccharide from agricultural and forestry byproducts: A comprehensive review

“…The maximum XOS yield was 68.5% when XOS were produced by hydrolyzing corncob with 5% propionic acid at 170°C for 50 min ( 52 ). It was reported that the product obtained by hydrolyzing brewer's grains with 1.85% sulfuric acid for 19.5 min contains 6.6 g/L arabinoxylooligosaccharide (AXOS) ( 53 ). The acetic acid pre-treatment of poplar could effectively produce XOS, with a yield of 55.8%, and acetylation degradation of lignin occurred after acetic acid pre-treatment ( 54 ).…”