BrauBeviale 2018

••• 7 ••• Innovationen Upcycling waste Novel conversion process for brewery grains Innovative approaches to extract value and re-use these discards are actively sought by the beer industry. Professor William Chen, Director of NTU’s Food Science and Tech- nology Programme, who is leading the re- search, said the new conversion process turns brewer’s waste into a valuable liquid nutrient, as similar commercial liquid nutri- ents are sold for US$ 30 per litre. In comparison, the team’s upcycled liq- uid nutrient is produced at only a fraction of the cost. This waste-to-nutrient tech- nology took Prof Chen and his researcher Ms Sachindra Cooray, a PhD student from NTU’s Interdisciplinary Graduate School, two years to develop. The innovation has drawn the interest of several international beverage companies. Prof Chen is now in talks with several com- panies to license or commercialise the pro- prietary technology. “We have developed a way to use food-grade microorganisms to convert the spent grains into basic nutri- ents that can be easily consumed by yeast,” explained Prof Chen. “About 85 per cent of the waste in brewing beer can now be turned into a valuable re- source, helping breweries to reduce waste and production cost while becoming more self-sustainable.” Associate Professor Xu Rong, Interim Chair of the School of Chemi- cal and Biomedical Engineering, said the burgeoning global population increasingly strains conventional food sources, so there is a need to innovate new foods and pro- cesses to alleviate the increasing demand. “Discovering new uses for different types of natural food grade microbes in waste- to-nutrient technology is the latest break- through by NTU chemical and bioengineers, which can help to address the food security issues faced by the world presently,” Assoc Prof Xu said. “By upcycling waste to usable nutrients, conventional resources used to grow yeast can now be diverted into the production of wholesome foods,” she added. Over 193 billion litres of beer are produced annually worldwide, which is enough to fill 77,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, gen- erating some 39 million tonnes of spent grain. For every five litres of beer produced, one kilogramme of spent grain is created. Prof William Chen (left) and PhD stu- dent Ms Sachindra Cooray developed the new process to turn spent beer grains into a valuable liquid used to grow yeast. Photo: NTU Singapore These are spent beer grains, fermented beer grains, nutrient liquid used to grow yeast, beer (anticlockwise from bottom left). Photo: NTU Singapore Continued from page 1 DIGMESA - THE LIQUID FLOW SENSING SOLUTION 35 YEARS SWISS & ORIGINAL HALL 6 252 BOOTH