The double effect of supercritical carbon dioxide, sc-CO2, in a biorefinery concept applied to brewer’s spent grain
(BSG) was assessed in this work. Extraction conditions to remove and valorize the lipophilic fraction were
studied (20–40 MPa and 40–80 ◦C) obtaining a maximum yield of 5.70 ± 0.07 g/100 gBSG at 80 ◦C and 40 MPa.
High pressures and temperatures resulted in higher content of total phenolic and flavonoid compounds, as well as
higher antioxidant capacity. It was observed an improvement of the enzymatic hydrolysis yield by cellulase in
the sc-CO2 treated BSG compared to the non-treated. This improvement could be partially attributed to the
removal of the lipid fraction and to morphological changes of BSG after sc-CO2. Based on this double benefit, scCO2 can play an important role on biomass valorization.
