Track: Environmental Engineering

Abstract

The production of alternative energy sources from waste residues is increasingly becoming popular. This paper focuses on the value addition of brewery spent grains waste by converting it to bio coal using hydrothermal carbonization. Brewery spent grains (BSG) from a local brewery company were used to determine the potential of making bio coal that can be used as a replacement to the conventional fossil fuel. Hydrothermal carbonization was conducted at 200 °C at a pressure of 25 bars for a residence time of 2 hours. The BSG were mixed with wastewater in the ratio 5:1. The bio coal that was produced had a calorific value of 26.1 MJ/kg and a fixed carbon content of 53.1%. The calorific values and fixed carbon were slightly higher than the conventional fossil coal which is an indication than BSG provides an alternative source of raw material for bio coal production, a source of renewable energy.