The waste products that are produced when brewing beer can be used to produce energy storage devices. This is the result of chemists from the University of Jena together with colleagues from Spain. From the residues of the brewing malt from a Jena brewery inn, known as brewer’s grains, the researchers extracted carbon that can be used as an electrode in batteries and activated carbon as an electrode material for supercapacitors.
1.5 billion tons of brewery waste
“We have been researching for several years how well different biological raw materials are suitable for the extraction of carbon-containing materials that we need in the production of energy storage devices,” said chemistry professor Andrea Balducci from the University of Jena on Monday.
Not only did brewery waste contain the necessary carbonaceous feedstock, Balducci said. Brewer’s grains are also produced in large quantities – around 1.5 billion tons in 2019 in Germany alone. In addition, the raw material is readily available because breweries are well distributed over the area.
Greentech solutions: supercapacitors made from coconut shells
So far, activated carbon for supercapacitors has been obtained primarily from coconut shells, the chemist said. In the future, he believes, brewery waste could become an interesting option “if certain factors can be further optimized, such as the costs or the chemical composition of the raw material”.
In further projects, the researchers now want to better understand the advantages and limitations of this abundant material so that it can possibly be used more in the production of sustainable energy storage in the future.