Economic and Financial Feasibility of a Biorefinery for Conversion of Brewers’ Spent Grain into a Special Flour

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the financial and economic feasibility of implementing a biorefinery to process the solid waste, called brewers’ spent grain, generated in the production of craft beer into special flour. In addition, to present a path for open innovation in the possibility of replication of the process and technology used in the plant. The inappropriate disposal generates an environmental problem, but individually, depending on the production volume of the brewery, the cost of processing the waste can be unfeasible. On the other hand, such waste embeds a high nutritional value for human food. This study followed the precepts of the circular bio-economy and industrial symbiosis strengthening of sustainable development. The research method is the Monte Carlo simulation, including four different scenarios and projections. The results indicate the financial and economic viability of industrial plants—biorefineries—for the transformation of the residue into special flour in three of the four scenarios studied in the five-year cycle. In the Monte Carlo simulation, no losses are evident in any of the 10,000 interactions. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the sensitivity of the supply is slightly higher than the price of the final product. Results may be useful to support the development of new, innovative products relying on collaboration among internal and external partners and open innovation concerns.

Circular Economy Initiatives: Strategic Implications, Resource Management, and Entrepreneurial Innovation in a Brazilian Craft Beer Ecosystem during the COVID Era

“…Overall, our study adds further and complementary qualitative evidence to the uncovered comparison studies [91][92][93], expanding the scope of the investigations towards other related knowledge streams, namely the sociotechnical transition perspective, coevolution, strategy, resource management, and entrepreneurial innovation. We hope that our findings will contribute to further research at the confluence of one or more of the above-mentioned areas we explored.…”

Exploiting Agri-Food Waste as Feed for Tenebrio molitor Larvae Rearing: A Review

“…Spent grains, apart from being available all year, constitute an economic by-product. Also, spent grains are a nutritious by-product as they are rich in fiber, protein, and minerals [107][108][109]. Presumably for the above reasons, Mancini et al [110] decided to implement these sub-products for the rearing of TM larvae and to test the effect on their nutritional value.…”

Spent Grain: A Functional Ingredient for Food Applications

“…Spent grain is a low cost by-product that is available throughout the year, is nutritionally valuable, rich in fiber, proteins and minerals and can be reused in both food and non-food sectors, including animal feed, compost preparations, biogas production, cultivation of microorganisms and production of biomaterials, biochemicals and bricks [ 33 , 37 , 38 ]. Spent grain extract is an approved ingredient in food supplements [ 39 ].…”

“…Spent grain is a by-product with high nutritional value, thus it is important to identify innovative solutions for returning waste and by-products into the production cycle to obtain innovative quality products [ 33 , 41 ]. A large number of companies have adopted the reduce-reuse-recycle approach, understanding that solving social and environmental issues require changing the strategy of organizations and introducing interdisciplinary actions and methods [ 38 ]. The circular economy is based on extending the life cycle of products by reusing, renovating and recycling them for as long as possible, thus reducing waste.…”