Adsorption of Purine Compounds in Beer with Activated Carbon Prepared from Beer Lees

Abstract

Six hundred thousand tons of beer lees are discharged annually in Japanese breweries. It is well known that purine compounds are one of substances which cause the gout and beer especially contains a lot of purine compounds such as adenosine, adenosine 5'-phosphate and so on, compared with the other alcoholic drinks. The application of activated carbon prepared from beer lees was investigated in order to remove purine compounds in beer. The reuse and recycling of beer lees to activated carbon for removing purine compounds in beer could make a contribution to the zero emission in breweries. In this study, the effect of physical properties of activated carbon derived from beer lees on the adsorption behavior of purine compounds was researched. Adenine, adenosine and adenosine 5'-phosphate, which are one of purine compounds, are selected as an example of model compounds in beer. The size of purine compounds and the pore structure of activated carbon affect the adsorption characteristic of purine compounds. It is found that beer lees can be reused and recycled in breweries by transforming to beer lees activated carbon for removing purine compounds in beer.

Potential of lees from wine, beer and cider manufacturing as a source of economic nutrients: An overview

“…Beer lees are the main by-products of the brewing industry generated during the fermenting step, occupying 80% of all wastes in breweries (Shibata et al, 2009).…”

Towards the Use of Adsorption Methods for the Removal of Purines from Beer

“…Adsorption methods can be an efficient alternative towards these goals. Despite their potential, there are still few reports focused on the removal of purine compounds from matrices such as beer and wort, and these are dominated by adsorption processes that use carbon-based materials, namely activated carbon or charcoal [98,104,105]. These works, as well as the previously mentioned enzymatic degradation methodologies for purines removal, are summarized in Table 5.…”

“…Nevertheless, a decolorization event could occur in the resultant fermented malt beverages after treatment with activated charcoal. Shibata et al [105] used activated carbon, prepared from brewing waste material, i.e., beer lees, to remove purine compounds from beer. A variety of beer lees-based activated carbons were prepared (e.g., LPN37, C950H1(2), C940H1.5(3) and C960H1.5(3)), and their adsorption capacity towards adenine, adenosine and AMP was evaluated and compared to those of a commercial activated carbon.…”

Performance of electrochemical double layer capacitors using highly porous activated carbons prepared from beer lees

“…In recent years, there is the growing interest to prepare the ACs from biomass precursors because of relatively cheap and abundant resources compared to various precursors [13,14]. Especially, the residual waste (beer lees) after beer extraction processes, which has been generally used in producing the feeds for domestic animals, was chosen to prepare the porous ACs [15]. This work is an attempt to assess the specific capacitance of the beer lees-based activated carbons (BL-ACs) as electrode materials for EDLCs.…”