Use of recovered yeast and grain residues from pot-ale in the construction of a sheep pellet

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Industry data has revealed that sheep feed prices have increased from £250/tonne (Feb 21) to £350/tonne (Jan 23).This represents a 40% increase in feed prices in less than 2 years. This price increase has had to be absorbed by the industry and passed on to the consumer.Distillery co-products (pot-ale syrup, yeast residues and draff) have historically been used as cattle feed. Unfortunately the high copper content has made these products unsuitable for sheep as they are copper intolerant.Yeast and fine grain residues represent around 1-2% of the volume of pot-ale, which is the main liquid co-product arising from the distillation process. It is estimated that up to 40,000 tonnes of these residues arising from Scottish distillers are dumped, either to land or sea, each year. If output from UK bioethanol plants was added to this then the total amount of new material created could be up to 200,000 tonnes per annum.This project seeks to produce a low copper content pellet using yeast residues from distillery effluent.The use of innovate hydrocyclonic filters can ensure that the fine yeast particles, which are currently treated as a waste, can now be captured, without any copper accumulation. The technology has the capacity to extract material down to a size of 3 microns. This project seeks to capture these residues and combine them with existing grains to produce a nutritional and sustainable sheep pellet.The project will benefit from the input of Professor Jos Houdijk at Scottish Rural College (SRUC). He is a UK recognised expert in animal nutrition. His recent work has had a particular focus on developing soya alternatives for animal feed.Yeast is an excellent source of protein and could potentially be used as a soya substitute.The UK imports around 3,000,000 tonnes of soya , 90% of which goes into animal feed. It estimated that around two-thirds of UK imported soya comes from Brazil . In some cases this soya production has lead to deforestation. The carbon cost of Brazilian soya has been estimated to be 0.77tCO2/tonne. Harnessing 200,000 tonnes of yeast residues would therefore save 154,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum.Reduction in reliance on imported soya could therefore assist UK farming with its net zero ambitions.