Composition for Using Brewery Wastes and Method of Preparing the Composition
An improvement in the composition of an animal feed product prepared from brewery slurry, spent brewer's grain and a liquid GRAS-approved polymer is described. A process for making the animal feed product, wherein the process combines the brewery slurry and spent brewer's grain, and then injects the GRAS-approved polymer into the mixture as the mixture is pumped into a screw press, and then the finished product is collected from the screw press is described.
1 . A method for preparing an animal feed composition, wherein the method comprises:
a. adding brewery slurry and spent brewer's grain slurry to a holding tank;
b. mixing the brewery slurry with the spent brewer's grain slurry until the components are blended and a yeast-grain slurry forms;
c. pumping the yeast-grain slurry into a screw press while simultaneously injecting a generally regarded as safe (“GRAS”)-approved polymer into the yeast-grain slurry; and,
d. collecting the finished product from the screw press.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the brewery slurry is a liquid byproduct recovered from the alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage production process that contains less than 2 wt % grain or grain by-product.
3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the brewery slurry is selected from spent yeast slurry, trub, stillage, runnings from the lauter, spent grain press liquor, or a combination thereof.
4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the brewery slurry is added to the holding tank before the spent brewer's grain slurry.
5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the brewery slurry with the spent brewer's grain slurry is mixed with an overhead mixer.
6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the brewery slurry comprises between about 2 wt % dry matter and 20 wt % dry matter.
7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the spent brewery grain slurry comprises between about 10 wt % dry matter and 30 wt % dry matter.
8 . The method of claim 1 wherein the volume ratio of the spent brewery yeast slurry to spent brewer's grain slurry used in the yeast-grain slurry is between 99% yeast slurry/1% spent grain slurry and 1% yeast slurry/99% spent grain slurry.
9 . The method of claim 8 wherein the volume ratio of the spent brewery yeast slurry to spent brewer's grain is from about 50:50 to about 80:20.
10 . The method of claim 1 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is an anionic flocculant.
11 . The method of claim 10 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is an anionic polyacrylamide.
12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is a copolymer of acrylamide and sodium acrylate.
13 . The method of claim 1 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is a non-ionic polyethylene oxide solubility polymer.
14 . The method of claim 1 wherein the finished product comprises from about 65 wt % to about 75 wt % moisture with from about 25 wt % to about 35 wt % dry matter.
15 . The method of claim 1 wherein the finished product comprises greater than about 30% crude protein.
16 . An animal feed composition comprising brewery slurry, spent brewer's grain slurry, and a generally regarded as safe (“GRAS”)-approved polymer, wherein the brewery slurry and spent brewer's grain slurry are mixed to form a yeast-grain slurry, and then the GRAS-approved polymer is injected into a screw press while simultaneously with the yeast-grain slurry, and then the animal feed composition is collected from the screw press.
17 . The animal feed composition of claim 16 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is an anionic flocculant.
18 . The animal feed composition of claim 16 wherein the GRAS-approved polymer is a non-ionic polyethylene oxide solubility polymer.
19 . The animal feed composition of claim 16 wherein the animal feed comprises from about 65 wt % to about 75 wt % moisture with from about 25 wt % to about 35 wt % dry matter.