Protein extraction from spent grains
AssigneeCoors Brewing Company
InventorsRoderick Nairn MCEWAN, Roderick Ian WHITE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for the extraction of protein rich flour and fiber rich flour from brewer's spent grains (BSG). The extraction of protein from the BSG may include preparing the BSG by controlling the temperature in a hot grain storage system and in some cases dewatering the BSG to acceptable moisture content levels. In extracting the protein rich and fiber rich flour, the BSG is conveyed to a device that dries, mills, and fractionates the BSG into separated protein and fiber extract.
Claims20
A method of extracting protein from spent grains, comprising:
- receiving, from a storage unit, spent grains;
- extracting, via a cell mill, protein rich flour from the spent grains;
- and
- packaging, via a packaging system, the protein rich flour in a storage or transportation container.
A system for extracting protein from spent grains, comprising:
- a hot grain storage system configured to store the spent grains at a controlled temperature;
- a foreign object detection and removal unit configured to separate metal, ferrous objects, and/or other debris from the spent grains extracted from the hot grain storage system;
- a drying device that dries the extracted spent grains to acceptable moisture content levels;
- a milling device that grinds the dried extracted spent grains into a coarse and fine particulate;
- a fractionation device that separates the coarse and fine particulate into different output streams, a first output stream corresponding to a fiber rich product output stream and a second output stream corresponding to a protein rich product output stream, wherein the separation is based on particle size of the coarse and fine particulate;
- a cooling system that cools the extracted protein rich product and the fiber rich product;
- and
- a packaging station for packaging of the protein rich product and the fiber rich product.
A method of extracting protein from spent grains, comprising:
- introducing spent grains received from a hot grain storage unit to a cell mill;
- drying, via a cell mill, the introduced spent grains;
- milling, via the cell mill, the dried spent grains into a coarse particulate and a fine particulate, wherein a particle size of the coarse particulate is larger than a particle size of the fine particulate;
- directing, automatically via the cell mill, the fine particulate to a first output stream exiting the cell mill, wherein the fine particulate includes protein rich material;
- and
- directing, automatically via the cell mill, the coarse particulate to a second output stream, wherein the coarse particulate includes fiber rich material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.