INTEGRATED PROCESS OF FILTRATION TO DRY BREWER'S SPENT GRAIN

摘要

The present invention relates to a process and the corresponding equipment, which is able to dehydrate the brewer's spent grain (BSG), from 72 - 85% to 15% moisture, resulting in a stabilized product with the same protein, fibre and lipid content. The dehydration process involves several stages, two of which are mechanical (filtration and membrane squeezing) and a last one which consists in vacuum drying using hot water or low pressure water vapour as heat source. The energy for the process is available at zero cost in the brewing industry, through the use of the process hot water, or the low pressure vapour coming from the co-generation units. The dehydrated BSG is a stabilized product and may be used as food for humans and for animals, ruminants and non- ruminants, and as raw material for biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications.