Sustainable plant-based ingredients
Nuutro has realized a complete pilot plant for Duynie in Nijmegen for extracting protein from brewer’s spent grain. The project encompassed concept engineering, basic engineering, and full turnkey realization, including an unloading facility at the brewery.
The Company
Duynie is Europe’s largest processor of plant-based co-products from the food, beverage, and biofuel industries. As part of Cosun, the company employs over 500 people to transform residual streams into high-value applications for animal feed, pet food, and industrial products. In Nijmegen, Duynie focuses among other things on processing brewer’s spent grain into valuable protein fractions, an important step in the transition to a circular economy.
The Challenge
Efficiently separating protein from other fibers in brewer’s spent grain formed the core of this innovation. The pilot plant had to demonstrate a completely new process in which brewer’s spent grain is food-safe received, processed to extract proteins, and then concentrated for further drying. The project had a high pilot character with new technology not yet commercially proven. Additionally, an unloading facility had to be realized at the brewery parallel to the pilot plant to secure the food-safety of the raw material stream.
Our Approach
Nuutro completed the entire trajectory with Duynie from concept to realization. Progressing on their Proof-of-Principle, we continued with the concept and basic engineering phase, the process was technically developed and optimized for efficient protein separation. Subsequently, Nuutro realized the complete turnkey installation, in which brewer’s spent grain is received, processed to release proteins, and the protein fraction is concentrated for transport to the dryer. In parallel, the unloading facility at the brewery was built to guarantee a constant supply of fresh brewer’s spent grain. The project was executed in ten months, starting in January 2023 with delivery at the end of 2023.
Why Nuutro
Duynie chose Nuutro because of its flexibility, collaborative thinking during the development process, and knowledge gained from earlier engineering phases. “Nuutro was able to set up the complete process from A to Z in a structured yet flexible project form,” according to the project team. This approach perfectly suited the pilot character of the project, where technical challenges and process optimizations went hand in hand.
Why work with Nuutro:
- Technology independent – open to all process solutions
- Tailored to the project and client – flexible during pilot phase
- Able to take responsibility – from concept to full realization
Results & Future
The pilot plant in Nijmegen formed the basis for Duynie’s first commercial brewer’s spent grain processing facility. The collaboration between Nuutro and Duynie is ongoing: even two years after delivery, Nuutro continues working on small improvements, expansions, and optimizations of the installation. This project demonstrates Nuutro’s ability to develop and realize innovative circular processes for established parties looking to implement new technologies.
