Brewer’s Spent Grains for production of binderless boards. A study on its contribution to sustainability

ROSSI, L.; WECHSLER, LUCÍA; RUSECKAITE, R.A.; CIANNAMEA, E. M.; STEFANI, P.M.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; WCCE11 - 11th WORLD CONGRESS OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING; 2023

Asociación Argentina de Ingenieros Químicos

Beer industry mainly produces Brewer’s Spent Grains (BSG), among other by-products. Currently, BSG is used as animal feed or disposed of as solid waste, causing expensive transportation costs and an increase in the volume of urban waste. The use of BSG as a substitute for wood in the manufacture of particleboards could be a sustainable alternative to reduce disposal problems [1]. BSG contains lignocellulosic components such as hemicelluloses, lignin, proteins, that could act as adhesives avoiding or reducing the use of synthetic adhesives, leading to binderless particleboards. The aim of this work is to determine the optimal processing conditions (humidity, pressure, temperature, and time) required to activate the self-adhesion mechanisms between BSG particles to obtain binderless boards (BB). As a reference, BSG-based boards were made using phenolic adhesive (BP, 10 wt.% dry BGS basis). The physical and mechanical properties were analyzed for each formulation, apparent density (DA), modulus of elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), internal bond strength (IB), water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS) were determined according to the procedures of the ASTM D 1037-93 standard (Table 1).