Brewery Spent Grain as sustainable source for value-added bioproducts: Opportunities and new insights in the integrated lignocellulosic biorefinery concept

Brewery Spent Grain (BSG) is the main by-product of beer production. However, there are still challenges to obtaining value-added bioproducts from BSG to reach the industrial scale. This review addresses potentialities and challenges for employing the biorefinery concept for BSG valorization: anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, and pyrolysis. The combination of the technological routes in an integrated biorefinery scheme was also discussed, with the goal of transforming breweries into profitable biorefineries, given the maximization of raw material use, diversification of products obtained, increased efficiency of processes, and reduction of carbon footprint.

Automated summary

This review discusses the potential and challenges of using the biorefinery concept to extract value-added products from brewery spent grain (BSG). The integration of anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, and pyrolysis in an integrated biorefinery scheme can transform breweries into profitable biorefineries by maximizing the use of raw materials, diversifying products, increasing process efficiency, and reducing the carbon footprint.