Enhancing the fuel properties of beverage wastes as non-edible feedstock for biofuel production

Abstract

A few industries, such as the beverage industry, have experienced some growth in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, beverage companies alone generate over 200 million tonnes of biomass annually, which largely ends up as animal feed or in landfills. With the UK government’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by at least 68% in 2030, many companies, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are exploring options to reduce carbon emissions and develop roadmaps to become carbon neutral. It has thus become imperative for beverage companies to find value in or repurpose their waste. This paper unlocks the potential for improving the fuel properties of beverage waste through a blending process and explores the determination of optimal fractions for the blends via characterization. With an initial moisture content of 82 and 58 wt.% brewery spent grain (BSG) and spent coffee grounds (SCG), respectively, the pre-treatment process reduced moisture content by approximately 10–15 wt.%. The study concludes that biomass blending improved the fuel properties of the biomass, providing a competitive comparison with coal for energy applications.

Keywords:

• Biomass composite
• brewery spent grains
• fuel properties
• energy
• spent coffee grounds

Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support from Love Lane Brewery and Bean Coffee Shop Liverpool UK. This article reflects only the authors’ views and the EuropeanCommission is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

CRediT author statement

Ibijoke Idowu: conceptualization, methodology; Ibijoke Idowu: data curation, writing – original draft preparation; Khalid Hashim: visualization, referencing; Andy Shaw: supervision; Leonel Nunes: writing – reviewing and editing.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Research Development Fund (ERDF) under the Low Carbon Eco Innovatory programme. LN was supported by proMetheus – Research Unit on Energy, Materials and Environment for Sustainability – UIDP/05975/2020, funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.