Evaluation of Spent Grain Biochar for Effluent Remediation

In recent years, industries have become aware of their impact on the environment and their surrounding communities. The Brewers Association, for example, recently published a manual on the handling of brewery effluent. In this project, we explored the use of Brewers Spent Grain (BSG) to treat model effluent. Biochar was generated from BSG to produce a carbon rich that was used to filter regular tap water and typical brewery effluent. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were measured from treated solutions as an indicator of the filter capacity of the biochar. Data obtained from this pilot project seems promising and meaningful in that a decrease of 3.35% and 17.09% for tap water and model effluent was observed. We conclude that use of biochar from BSG in treating effluent can be helpful in reducing TDS. This can help reduce the stress put on the environment from industrial effluents. Further study would involve communicating these results to surrounding industries in addition to analyzing use of their solid wastes to generate biochar for effluent treatment.