UK researcher produces charcoal briquettes from brewery waste

In the UK, breweries in the EU throw out around 3.4 million tons of unspent grain every year, weighing the equivalent of 500,000 elephants. Using just 1kg of the grain, a researcher from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering has been able to create enough activated carbon to spread across 100 football pitches.

The results have been published in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. The project was funded by EPSRC and The Bryden Centre at Queen’s. It was an international collaboration between Queen’s University Belfast, South West College and Sultan Qaboos University in Oman.

The researcher is hoping to explore opportunities for the commercialization of the method in creating activated carbon and carbon nanotubes.