Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of a Biorefinery for the Valorisation of Brewer’s Spent Grain.

In 2021, Europe produced a staggering 34 billion litres of beer. Each cubic meter of beer yields 0.2 tons of valuable side-product, known as brewer’s spent grain. The project CHEERS, funded by Horizon Europe, is revolutionizing the beer industry by transforming these side streams into innovative bio-based products.

At the Life Cycle Management Conference LCM2023 on September 8th in Lille, France, Dimitri Chryssolouris from the LCA research group at ZHAW presented the LCSA approach for the CHEERS biorefinery in the poster session “Life Cycle Management applied to food, agriculture, and beverages”.

The suggested comprehensive Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) quantifies the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the entire CHEERS biorefinery system, with a specific focus on biodiversity, socio-economic effects, and economic feasibility through Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA).

The Life Cycle Management Conference was the perfect opportunity to share our insights, to foster discussions, and to drive positive change!