Packaging

EquiTherm – More than 20 per cent savings on primary energy in the brewing process

Tuesday 16. November 2010 - Among the principal focuses of Krones’ process technology operations is energy-saving, with concomitant resource-economy. In terms of energy consumption, wort production is the section of the brewing process that requires the most primary energy in the form of heat. This is where a newly developed energy management concept comes into play.

Besides the familiar energy recovery system in the brewhouse between the lautered-wort heater and the wort boiler, fed by the vapour condenser, another energy recovery feature can substantially reduce a brewery’s thermal energy consumption. For this purpose, energy is removed at a high temperature level from the wort after boiling. This can be utilised, for example, to reduce the amount of primary energy consumed in the mashing process or in the CIP system. Because these processes all run at a lower temperature level than that for heating and boiling the wort.

One precondition for this concept to succeed is utilisation of the ShakesBeer mash tun, which with its dimple jackets enables a high level of energy transfer to be achieved. With this new energy recovery concept, in conjunction with optimised heat consumers, savings of more than 20 per cent in primary energy consumption can be achieved in the brewing process. A 200,000-hectolitre brewery, for example, can save more than 250,000 kilowatt-hours of thermal energy a year.