Received 18 March 2025 Received in revised form 9 July 2025 Accepted 10 July 2025 Available online 5 August 2025 Keywords: Brewing by-product Circular economy Compo-stability Disintegration Recycling Sustainability 1. Introduction Packaging aims to enclose and protect a wide range of indus- trial and consumer goods, including agricultural commodities and food and drink products, during their distribution and storage and until their use. The global packaging market has been growing rapidly, reaching values of approximately 974 billion US dollars in 2018, with more than 15 billion related to food packaging (Bayram et al., 2021; FAO, 2014). Moreover, concerns about the environ- mental impacts of packaging waste are also increasing, stimulating more restrictive regulatory requirements aimed at reducing, reusing, or recycling packaging materials. Approximately 31 million tons of packaging waste were produced in the European Unit in 2017, which was made of paper/cardboard (41%) and plastic (19%) (Eurostat, 2020). Sustainability is increasingly a priority for packaging manu- facturers, who are moving from traditional to more eco-friendly * Corresponding author. E-mail address: antonietta.baiano@unifg.it (A. Baiano). Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the main by-product of brewing processes. As a lignocellulosic material, BSG is suitable for producing disintegrable composite materials and packaging. Our research aimed to develop BSG-based formulations with and without corn starch that are suitable for producing objects through thermomoulding. The thermomoulding temperature was fixed at 200 ◦C, and the thermo- moulding time ranged from 4 to 30 min. The effects of the thickness (2, 5 and 10 mm), addition of corn starch and BSG type (W (wet), U (dried and unground), P (dried, unground and hot-water treated before use) and M (dried and milled)) on the physical and mechanical properties, absorption capacity, disin- tegration degree and solubility of the tray materials were investigated. All formulations were charac- terized by high water absorption (>71.73%), weight loss (46.73%—67.58%) and solubility (30.78% —44.68%). The density, breaking strength and resistance to penetration decreased as the thickness increased, whereas no differences in the flexural strength were detected. The addition of starch reduced both the density and water absorption percentage and increased the penetration strength. With respect to the BSG state, the use of W-BSG resulted in the highest resistance to flexion (0.11 N/mm2) and the lowest resistance to penetration (2.15 N/mm); the use of M-BSG resulted in the highest resistance to penetration (6.36 N/mm). Principal component analysis highlighted that most of the materials devel- oped had physical and mechanical characteristics that made them different from each other and therefore suitable for different uses.
Development and characterization of brewers’ spent grain-based materials
Baiano A.
;Fiore A.
2025-01-01
Abstract
Received 18 March 2025 Received in revised form 9 July 2025 Accepted 10 July 2025 Available online 5 August 2025 Keywords: Brewing by-product Circular economy Compo-stability Disintegration Recycling Sustainability 1. Introduction Packaging aims to enclose and protect a wide range of indus- trial and consumer goods, including agricultural commodities and food and drink products, during their distribution and storage and until their use. The global packaging market has been growing rapidly, reaching values of approximately 974 billion US dollars in 2018, with more than 15 billion related to food packaging (Bayram et al., 2021; FAO, 2014). Moreover, concerns about the environ- mental impacts of packaging waste are also increasing, stimulating more restrictive regulatory requirements aimed at reducing, reusing, or recycling packaging materials. Approximately 31 million tons of packaging waste were produced in the European Unit in 2017, which was made of paper/cardboard (41%) and plastic (19%) (Eurostat, 2020). Sustainability is increasingly a priority for packaging manu- facturers, who are moving from traditional to more eco-friendly * Corresponding author. E-mail address: antonietta.baiano@unifg.it (A. Baiano). Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the main by-product of brewing processes. As a lignocellulosic material, BSG is suitable for producing disintegrable composite materials and packaging. Our research aimed to develop BSG-based formulations with and without corn starch that are suitable for producing objects through thermomoulding. The thermomoulding temperature was fixed at 200 ◦C, and the thermo- moulding time ranged from 4 to 30 min. The effects of the thickness (2, 5 and 10 mm), addition of corn starch and BSG type (W (wet), U (dried and unground), P (dried, unground and hot-water treated before use) and M (dried and milled)) on the physical and mechanical properties, absorption capacity, disin- tegration degree and solubility of the tray materials were investigated. All formulations were charac- terized by high water absorption (>71.73%), weight loss (46.73%—67.58%) and solubility (30.78% —44.68%). The density, breaking strength and resistance to penetration decreased as the thickness increased, whereas no differences in the flexural strength were detected. The addition of starch reduced both the density and water absorption percentage and increased the penetration strength. With respect to the BSG state, the use of W-BSG resulted in the highest resistance to flexion (0.11 N/mm2) and the lowest resistance to penetration (2.15 N/mm); the use of M-BSG resulted in the highest resistance to penetration (6.36 N/mm). Principal component analysis highlighted that most of the materials devel- oped had physical and mechanical characteristics that made them different from each other and therefore suitable for different uses.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
