Economic Advantages of Malt By-products

Global malt industry is operating at 78%, with its total production is expected to be around 21,500 MT. 94% of the total malt production is used in brewery industry. Europe is the largest producer of malt, where world?s top 5 players hold about 42% of total market. Asia is the largest producer of alcoholic beverages, followed by Europe. Every year, beer generates about EUR 130-150 million. However, at different stages of production, a brewery loses an opportunity to recover about 2-6% of total production cost, as it is unable to utilize its by-products effectively. Generally, to produce 1000 tons of beer, 135-170 tons of waste is generated. Spent grain contributes about 85% of total by product of the brewing process. With increasing production of alcoholic beverage, it is available throughout the year in large quantities. Technically, spent grain consists of polysaccharides, lignin and cellulose. So far, its major usage is used to animal feed. However, due to high protein and fibre content in spent grain, it is also used as adjunct for human nutrition. Lately, companies are also using spent grain as a biomass for generating energy and fuel.