Bioprocessing of Cellulose-Based Plants for Beverage Fermentation

Province Brands of Canada brews beverages from sugars derived from agricultural wastes such as hemp stems and stalks. The resulting beer is flavorful and nutritiously functional. The stems and stalks must be broken down to produce a glucose syrup suitable for brewing. In order to improve overall results and consistency of final products, Province Brands will collaborate with Dr. Heather Trajano and her team to investigate strategies to increase the removal of acetyl group impurities from hemp stems and stalks and increase the sugars recovered. In addition, Dr. Trajano’s team will verify if Province Brands’ technology can also be applied to process other types of agricultural waste such as wheat straw. Finally, hemp stems and stalks contain many compounds with potential applications as food, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals. Dr. Trajano’s team will identify opportunities to capture and valorize these compounds. The partnership will allow Province Brands to scale-up from lab scale production to produce commercially available products for the Canadian market.

Faculty Supervisor:

Heather Trajano

Student:

Jingqian Chen

Partner:

Province Brands of Canada

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of British Columbia