Sustainable beer brewing

A FEW months ago, Krones AG was acknowledged with the Bavarian Energy Prize for its energy storage system for breweries called the EquiTherm. The award-winning design was developed to take energy out of the brewing process at an appropriate point and move it where it is needed. Because the energy recirculates, the process achieves up to 30% savings in thermal energy and 20% for electricity. This is a huge breakthrough since beer brewing takes up a lot of energy and electricity.

One of the breweries that now incorporate the system is C. & A. Veltins. The firm’s investment in three parallel Steinecker brewing lines that use an EquiTherm will translate to thermal and electricity savings of 35% and 20% respectively. Whereas previously energy-intensive live steam was required, in future the tuns will be heated up using warm water from the energy storage system. This greatly improves overall efficiency because existing waste heat can be re-applied. The investment has enabled Veltins to install Europe’s most sophisticated brewing technology, and at the same time accomplish substantial progress in terms of energy efficiency.

EquiTherm components

 
A wort cooler, energy storage tank with a stratified charging pipe, and a ShakesBeer EcoPlus mash tun are components that make up the EquiTherm. The wort cooler removes heat at a high temperature level from the hot wort in the first stage, and places it for the time being in the energy storage tank. In the second stage, the wort is cooled down to pitching temperature, and thus produces warm mash liquor as usual. The energy storage tank can be used jointly for heating both the mash and the lautered wort.

The energy-saving EquiTherm creates less warm water than a brewery needs

Recycling thermal energy from the brewing process for mashing produces numerous advantages in actual operation. Superfluous vapour energy with total evaporation rates of more than 4% can be fed into the energy storage circuit and thus be utilised effectively. Any excess of warm water can be completely eliminated, which also significantly reduces the amount of wastewater that may arise from the process. The EquiTherm system can be retrofitted quite easily into existing installations, and achieves massive savings in both infusion and decoction.

“We have made a once-in-a-decade investment decision, so it’s indubitably sensible to incorporate the entire spectrum of what’s technologically possible,” says Peter Peschmann, head of Production and Plant Engineering at the C. & A. Veltins brewery. “The ingenious thing about EquiTherm is the double energy recirculation system. You have to wonder in hindsight why no one had ever thought of this before.”

 Another of Krones’ equipment for mid-tier breweries is the CombiCube F brewhouse. This system’s filtration throughput ranges from 25 to 108hL an hour, and has been dimensioned to match the capacity of its predecessor, the CombiCube B brewhouse. Mid-tier breweries with an annual production output of up to 250,000 hL are now able to benefit – on a more compact scale – from Steinecker’s field-proven technology in yet another section of their production operations.

The CombiCube F is a TFS filter. The twin-flow principle has been retained, thus enabling the filtrate flow to be reduced down to 30% of the rated throughput. All the other technological advantages provided by the TFS filter can also be used for the smaller output range involved here.

Filter in five modules

This filter is divided into five individual modules, which can be combined at will to suit the brewery’s particular needs. The first module is the filter module pure and simple, containing the candle filterAdidas