Dr. Ahmed Osman, a researcher from Queen’s University, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has discovered a way to take leftover barley from beer and turn it into a renewable fuel source. This breakthrough method uses leftover barley from alcohol breweries and converts it into activated carbon.
Dr. Osman works for the university’s school of chemistry and chemical engineering; his results have been published in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. What he was able to do is create enough activated carbon from just one kilogram of grain to spread across 100 football pitches or soccer fields.
The low-cost technique takes the byproducts of the brewing process and converts them into possible renewable fuel for heating homes, water filters for developing countries, or charcoal for barbequing.
As Dr. Osman says, these materials are in high demand, “There are only a few steps in our low cost and novel approach – drying the grain out and a two-stage chemical and heat treatment using phosphoric acid and then a potassium hydroxide wash, both of which are very low-cost chemical solutions. This then leaves us with activated carbon and carbon nanotubes—high-value materials which are very much in demand.”
He goes on to say, “Across the globe, there is a real demand for carbon, as it is used to create fuel for households, parts for water filters, and charcoal for barbecues. If we are able to take something that would otherwise be a waste and turn it into a useful biofuel, it can only be a good thing for our planet. It could really help to solve global waste and energy problems.”
He was also quoted as saying, “Liquid forms of carbon are normally shipped to the UK from the Middle East, and solid biocarbon, in the form of wood pellets is shipped from the US and elsewhere. Using this new technique, we can utilize more locally produced resources, reduce emissions linked with the agriculture sector, and we are also creating a high-value product.”
There will be a major conference held in Belfast from Feb 26th to the 28th, 2020, called Engineering the Energy Transition. Dr. Osman is looking into ways of commercializing his technique for activated carbon and synthesizing carbon nanotubes.
According to Queen’s, the breweries in the EU combine to throw away around 3.4 million tons of unspent grain per year. This discovery is a very good thing, and given the number of breweries in the US, this could end up helping the environment in a big way. This is exciting news indeed! Breweries are also finding other innovative ways to repurpose their waste—Heineken, for instance, is converting beer waste into sustainable energy through anaerobic digestion at its breweries.
