BrewPro: Multi-stage microbial technology for the cost-effective production of high-quality animal feed on brewery effluents.

By 2050, the global demand for nutritional protein will increase by about 50%. Yet, the boundaries of environmental sustainability are already severely trespassed in the traditional food-supply chain. Locally recovering resources from waste streams is one of the key steps to reduce environmental impact while creating import independency (e.g. soybean). In single cell protein (SCP) production, these societal needs perfectly match, as microbial technology is probably the most resource-efficient manner of producing nutritional protein. Wastewater from the food processing industry provides an excellent target for upgrading, such as brewery wastewater. The BrewPro project aims to develop a process that for the first time would allow to tune the protein quantity and quality of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria. This should enable cost-effective harvesting and post-processing, yielding a nutritionally attractive ingredient for animal feed preparations. The concept is based in a multiple stage anaerobic/aerobic bioreactor. As such, BrewPro wants to strengthen food sustainability and security through smart management of secondary resources.

Keywords:SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY, ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY, NUTRIENTS, BIOTECHNOLOGY

Disciplines:Food chemistry and molecular gastronomy, Food microbiology, Environmental chemistry, (Waste)water treatment processes, Sustainable development, Food technology