Re-use/reduction of food waste
About this good practice
SymbioBeer is an EPA Green Enterprise Funded industrial symbiosis innovation demonstration pilot, facilitated by Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) between St Mel’s Brewery and Panelto Foods between 2020-2021. The objective of the pilot was to demonstrate the feasibility and business case for creating industrial synergies between actors in Longford, develop a register of opportunities for potential synergies in the Longford area, identify key barriers and success factors to the wider implementation of industrial symbiosis between beer and bread manufacturers and develop policy recommendations for the potential scaling up of implementation of industrial symbiosis in Ireland. SymbioBeer is a project which addressed the EPA Green Enterprise Fund 2019 themes of "Food Waste Prevention" and "Promoting innovative waste preventions solutions across the food production and food processing sectors".
Through this innovation demonstration waste bread from an industrial bakery were utilised as a malted grain substitute to produce a novel beers by a brewery, while spent grains were used as an added high nutritional value ingredient in bakery products.
Both businesses investigated how to increase their revenue, reduce waste management/logistics costs and accompanying GHGs.
Resources needed
Ability to scale which is key to commercial viability. Investment in infrastructure or new value chains. Data on production residues and their availability in regions. Significant time investment to meet licensing, standard and regulatory obligations for use of production residues.
Evidence of success
Residuals can be used as substitutes for virgin raw materials. Reduction in GHGs, Increase in supply chain resilience. Save money and create new revenue streams. By products from the two production processes with the potential to create novel co-products such as biofuel or furniture. Extracting polyphenols for use in bioplastics and proteins for use in aquaculture/animal feed.
Potential for learning or transfer
There is both potential for learning and transfer from this pilot project. Industrial symbiosis, whereby the waste from one process is transformed into a resource for another, is a key principle of a circular economy model. Scale is key to commercial viability. Likely to require multiple breweries working with multiple bakeries and investment in infrastructure or new value chains. Local government and regional development actors can drive and assist collaborations between companies and provide tailored instruments to support synergies.
Further information
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
