SoBT Team Publish Method for Converting Waste into Worth for Distilling Industry

A consortium led by researchers based in the School of Biotechnology at DCU has yielded new data for methodology that not only improves the processes inherent to the distilling industry, but also integrates a sustainability, environment-focussed pathway into such.

Biomethane generation and utilisation from anaerobic digestion of biomass is an industry that has attracted global attention in the last decade. This is in part due to successes of repurposing various types of organic waste into a useful and sustainable commodity, but primarily due to the resultant reduction in said gases which negatively impact upon the environment.

This is particularly pertinent to the distilling industry, in which the processes responsible for producing one litre of malt whiskey, produce 8-15 litres of wastewater known as pot ale – a material which upon disposal at landfill sites, not only can influence processes which negatively impact on climate change, but also impact on the composition of the surrounding land, changing the physical properties of the soil with consequences for agriculture and ecosystems alike.

Asst. Profs. Gunes and Lawler, of the School of Biotechnology and the DCU Water Institute have recently published new work in this area in which they apply a new combined mechanical (ultrasonic) and chemical (alkaline) pre-treatment to the aforementioned material which capitalises on the physical and chemical properties of such. Taken together, the data points towards a method which will not only improve the increasingly valued biogas product’s yield from the waste material, but will reduce the time taken to extract such; eliminating one of the primary drawbacks of anaerobic digestion of the material and resulting in a much more efficient process. 

‘The brewing and distilling industries in Ireland and UK are growing rapidly in recent years meaning the production of this kind of biomass is ever-increasing’, explains Dr. Gunes; first name author on the published study. ‘As such, researchers have sought ways to repurpose the resultant waste material, with a large quantity used as part of livestock feed’.

‘In some cases, the nature of the material produced by the processes such as those responsible for malt whiskey for example prevents it from being used in this manner, meaning the majority of it is disposed at landfills, unfortunately at the expense of the environment’.

‘With the European Union calling for greenhouse gases to be reduced by 95% by 2050, processes for treating these types of materials that contribute towards climate change are needed, but why stop there? Why not develop processes that repurpose the material for useful gains as part of the process’.   

The research, conducted in collaboration with the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, the DCU Business School, and Alltech European Bioscience Centre, has seen the team publish on utilising this type of material for harnessing biogas; a clean renewable energy source that is gathering momentum for use in a number of applications. With the development of methodologies towards enabling once ineligible material to now be substrates for these processes, there is thought to be limitless potential in harnessing these products from the once useless waste material. 

‘Our methodology takes what was once considered wastewater, and redefines it as a substrate for the production of green energy. Further development and refinement of these processes towards these types of applications have great economic, but more importantly, environmental value’.

‘We believe the sooner methodologies such as ours are adopted and scaled to suit industry, the more likely we are to succeed at meeting the environmental goals set by the EU’.

For more information, the recently published article can be found here.