Uni students look to turn beer waste into potentially billion-dollar material

A team from Canterbury University is rewriting the traditional relationship between students and beer with a project that could prevent 13,700 tonnes of waste going to landfill each year.

The project, called NanoBrew, hopes to use a biochemical process to turn grain leftover from the production of beer into a highly useful material called nanocellulose.

Team member Jade Wilson told Morning Report changing the way brewery waste, known as spent grain, is processed could substantially cut carbon emissions.

"Grain is produced in quite large quantities and it spoils quickly. So, what ends up going to landfill is about the equivalent of 3,300 petrol cars being driven around for a year in terms of carbon emissions."

Approximately 85 percent of brewing waste is spent grain.

"The thing that we're trying to get out of the spent grain is something called nanocellulose, which is essentially just a tiny little natural fibre, which has some really cool properties.

"It's very strong, it's very flexible, and that means it can be used in a range of really exciting applications from, biodegradable plastic alternatives to cosmetics to electronic circuit boards.

The nanucellulose could be used in cosmetics, biodegradable plastic alternatives or even electronic circuitboards, and has a global market value in the billions of dollars.

"What we're doing is we're just using these little proteins called enzymes to break down the grains and get that valuable nanocellulose," Wilson said.

"It's quite difficult to compost. It ferments quickly and it's quite wet, so there's a lot of technical challenges there. Most of it goes to the landfill."

The idea for NanoBrew came from one of its 10 members who was working at a local brewery, and had been looking into the brewing process and the waste involved.

"We were really drawn to the opportunity to reduce that waste and some of the carbon emissions. It's definitely a bunch of nerds involved, but we're very passionate about how science can create impact in our communities," she said.

The NanoBrew project is part of the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) synthetic biology competition. And, the team is fundraising to present its findings at a jamboree in Paris this November.

"The competition is centred around using science to solve issues that are impacting our global communities. We're very excited to be representing New Zealand on the international stage," Wilson said.