Current advances in the brewery wastewater treatment from anaerobic digestion for biogas production: A systematic review

Brazil is the third largest beer producer in the world and has several brewing industries. These industries cover a range of production processes due to their wide variety of beverages, which leads to the generation of effluents with different physicochemical characteristics. Furthermore, these residues are usually disposed of without any treatment despite having enormous potential for biogas and bioenergy production. Biorefinery is a relevant alternative to the transition from a linear economy to a Circular Economy (CE). The Biorefinery exploits all available resources in the production of goods and contributes to sustainable development in the face of industrial production. In this context, as an alternative solution, anaerobic digestion (AD) has been commonly used as it uses different biomass sources to satisfy current energy demands. AD can be implemented to treat brewing effluent, promote its energy recovery, reduce environmental pollution, and produce environmentally friendly biological products: biogas and biofertilizer. Thus, this review explored the potential of AD for brewery waste management in association with the bio-based CE. Overall, the current manuscript emphasized the potential of brewery waste for biogas generation and energy production, discussing its adoption and challenges.