Breweries produce spent grains. Spent grain is a substrate for biogas production in anaerobic digestion plants.
The main brewery waste is spent grain. Other process waste is yeast.
There are two alternative ways to process beer spent grains: drygrains or biogas.
It was considered that drying spent grain is cheaper than a biogas plant. However, brewery dried grains compete with the fresh grain. When there is grain overproduction on the agricultural market, grain has a low price. And dried grains are difficult to sell, and drying is unprofitable. Drying is just a way to get rid of waste.
Spent grain recycling into biogas is considered mainly for a purpose of the natural gas replacement in the brewery boilers
With the direct replacement of natural gas by biogas in boilers, the capital costs for a biogas plant are lower because there is no need to buy a generator or methane upgrade.
Investment in a biogas plant without the power generation can be compared to an investment in the grain drying.
A biogas plant is ultimately a more economical option than the spent grain dryer. The payback time for such a biogas project in the prices of 2023 is 2-3 years. Unlike drying, biogas plants don’t consume but rather produce energy.
Comparing the payback time of a drying plant to that of a biogas plant, it is correct not only to count the direct benefits of the produced biogas but also to count natural gas savings from not drying spent grain.
It should also be remembered that a biogas plant allows the brewery to achieve decarbonization and sustainability goals.
Zorg Biogas did a lot of studies of spent grains. Zorg Biogas built biogas plants for a wide variety of substrates: distillery wastewater, carrot pulp, sugar beet pulp, corn silage. These types of raw materials are similar to spent grains.
Breweries also have biogas, produced by wastewater treatment plants WWTP. Zorg designed and supplied a gas treatment for the well-known beer brewery Efes-Vintanta in Chishinau, Moldova republic. Biogas is mixed with natural gas and the gas mix is burned in the existing boiler.
Biome Biogas is committed to promoting sustainable energy and infrastructure solutions, helping clients harness the power of biogas while contributing to environmental conservation.
From planning to execution, they deliver quality infrastructure solutions that adhere to the highest standards.
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