Researchers from the Spain's Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, in collaboration with Mahou and Createch Co., have pioneered a new bone bio-material from an unlikely source - beer-brewing waste. Spent grain waste, called bagasse, contains many of the same key molecular ingredients of bone: phosphorous; calcium; magnesium; and silica, making it a good fit for a bone replacement material. To make bagasse suitable to mingle with bone, the researchers needed only to add silicon through the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate and sinter the resultant material above 1,100 deg C. "The analysis of this new material shows the presence of interconnected pores of between 50 and 500 um in diameter, which is similar to the porosity of cancellous bone," according to the press release.
