NNZA: Closing the industrial fermentation loop for a circular bioeconomy

The UK brewing industry generates over 500,000 tonnes of spent grains annually (the North-East generates an average of 65,000 tonnes). Meanwhile, biomanufacturers in the North-East rely heavily on imported activated carbon for downstream purification. Our results demonstrate that thermochemical conversion of brewing spent grains can produce an efficient adsorbent with properties similar to those of activated carbon. This will yield ~10,000 tonnes of in-house, high-quality activated charcoal to meet the needs of local biomanufacturers.