The brewing sector is a significant part of the global food industry. Breweries produce large quantities of wastes, including wastewater and brewer’s spent grains. Currently, upcycling of food industry by-products is one of the principles of the circular economy. The aim of this review is to present possible ways to utilize common solid by-product from the brewing sector. Brewer’s spent grains (BSG) is a good material for sorption and processing into activated carbon. Another way to utilize spent grains is to use them as a fuel in raw form, after hydrothermal carbonization or as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The mentioned by-products may also be utilized in animal and human nutrition. Moreover, BSG is a waste rich in various substances that may be extracted for further utilization. It is likely that, in upcoming years, brewer’s spent grains will not be considered as a by-product, but as a desirable raw material for various branches of industry.
Contribution of renewable energy sources in the world energy production is consistently increasing. This is mainly due to two reasons -depleting fossil fuels resources and climate changes. Biomass, as one of the most widely utilized renewable energy sources, has an undoubtedly meaningful impact on production of the renewable energy, not only now, but in all likelihood also in the future [IEA, 2006]. It can be used for various biofuel supply chains, for both thermoand biochemical processes, like combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, or fermentation [Kaygusuz, 2009]. Combustion is one of the simplest and best-known processes of the aforementioned. Hence, it is commonly used in power plants where biomass combustion and/or co-combustion takes place. However, introducing biomass processing into boiler operation is linked with a few problems. These involve transport and storage of
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