The objective of the LIFE-Brewery project is to demonstrate an innovative and highly-replicable integrated solution to recover brewery by-products as aquaculture-feed ingredients. Demand for such ingredients is growing. The project will optimise and scale up a low-carbon dehydration process, using an innovative combination of mechanical and thermal technologies for obtaining a sustainable meal from brewery by-products.

Aqua-feed formulas will also be optimised to maximise the amount that can be included in the diet of farmed fish.

By adding value to food waste, the project is targeting one of the priority areas of the EU Circular Economy Action Plan. Its goals are also in line with the waste hierarchy established in the Waste Framework Directive. And by helping to reduce the operating costs of fish farmers it contributes to the EU’s new Common Fisheries Policy. In addition, the use of the fish meal replacement will reduce the need to catch wild fish, contributing to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Expected results:

• One semi-industrial drying plant in Spain, combining mechanical and thermal technologies for drying brewery by-products to obtain a sustainable meal for aqua-feed;
  A scheme to add value to two brewery by-products (spent grain and yeast) scaled-up and validated by stakeholders and a demonstration trial to produce two raw materials for aqua-feed;
• Three sustainable aqua-feed diets containing two new raw materials from brewery by-products (spent grain and yeast meals) successfully tested in three different species through fish growth trials;
• Recovery of 75% of BSG and brewer’s yeast in the case study during the demonstration trial: one tonne of each in meals, and two tonnes of experimental aqua-feeds;
• An integrated basic model for a waste recovery plant, based on the eco-design concept and applicable in any region of Europe, allowing replication of the project’s solutions;
• At least 95% of brewery by-products in Spain will be recycled two years after the end of the project;
• 85% of brewery by-products will be recovered in two additional EU regions within three years of the end of the project (technology transfer);
• A 25% reduction in the environmental impact associated with aqua-feed production of three commercial fish species within two years of the project’s end. This will be achieved by replacing at least 15% of the fish meal currently used with a new raw material from brewery by-products; and
• Creation of up to 50 new jobs within three years of the end of the project.