Ricerc@Sapienza

Beer is one of the most popular drinks, obtained by the fermentation process of wort, composed by malt, hops and water. It is the second most consumed alcoholic beverage in Europe. Alcohol abuse represents a worldwide serious problem with strong impact on both health and society. On the other hand, beneficial effects linked to moderate consumption of beer were widely evidenced, mainly due to the healthy properties of natural polyphenols, especially hydroxybenzoic acids, highly contained in beer.
The interest in the production of low-alcohol beer is increasing worldwide, and a strong impact on the global market could be expected for low-alcohol beer with high sensory and health-promoting qualities.
The present project aims to develop an integrated zero discharge low alcohol beer production process by dealing with both aspects: production of high quality low alcohol beer, and waste water treatment.
A combined membrane process is proposed to produce low alcohol beer from commercial beer: diafiltration to lower the alcohol content of the beer, and pervaporation to infuse flavour to the beer. The quality of low alcohol beer will be then evaluated with respect to the commercial one especially in terms of the phytochemicals.
The waste water treatment aims on one side to the recovery of polyphenols and on the other side to have a wastewater stream compatible to the municipal sewer system. Nanozeolite will be synthesised in the project and their ability to adsorb and desire polyphenols will be assessed.
Finally, brewer¿s spent yeast will be treated to extract beta-glucans and mannoproteins for the food industry. The extraction methods will benchmark natural deep eutectic solvents of different formulations.