Session Chair:
Larry Nelson, Founder, Advantage Publishing Ltd
Sustainability in maltings: A Zero Emission Malthouse
By Martijn Van Iersel and Edwin Evers, Holland Malt
As sustainability is a growing topic is in the beer-value chain, Holland Malt initiated a unique project to diminish its CO2-footprint and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. The project focusses on two main goals: 1) reduce the energy usage in a modern, state-of-the-art maltings with more than 50%. 2) build a maltings with zero CO2-footprint for production and zero GHG emissions. The goals for this project will be reached by a new way of energy reuse which will make it possible to increase the re-usage of the energy in the outgoing airflow. This energy recycling step is introduced without any implications for the malting process itself. In addition to that we will introduce a complete electrification of the malting plant, and a process in which guaranteed EU wind and solar energy will be used to supply the maltings. As we speak the constructions have started for the Eemshaven malting plant, constructions that will continue into 2023. When finalized early 2024, Eemshaven malting plant will produce malt with a CO2-footprint of zero, and without any GHG emissions. In this presentation we will present you with details of this newly developed process.
Efficient valorization of Breweries Spent Grains BSG for polyphenols, proteins and dietary fibers
By Thomas Wünsche, Andritz Austria
Since decades brewers and distillers are striving for solutions of better utilization of spent grains. From the use as wet and dried animal feed, over combustion solutions with upfront dewatering and extract recovery from press waters, up to biomass fermentation, all processes did not fully reflect the natural value of the inherent valuable resource base of spent grains: Polyphenols, proteins and health beneficial trace elements in the dietary fibers. Same moment there is a rapidly increased demand for alternative protein resources due to the growth of the global population by 2 Billion over the next 30 years. The price for plant-based proteins and other ingredients has double over the past 10 years. The abstracted presentation sketches an innovative valorization process based on a hydrodynamic, continuous extraction process based on cavitation, which pulls with a high efficiency enriched polyphenol powder, valuable proteins and dietary fibers rich in Arabinoxylan (AX). It touches further advantages of converting fast spoiling spent grains into storable liquid extract, taking them from the critical path of beer production, before they are evaporated to paste or dried to powder.
Starch and starch is not the same – how climate change affects malting barley
By Martina Gastl et al., TUM WZW
In the past decades, malting barley breeding has focused on maximising the starch content or the extract available from it, reaching now quantitatively at the upper limit. As a consequence of climate change, barley malt quality is often affected by anomalies in barley starch structure (obvious effect especially during heat and drought stress/harvest 2017-2019), which remains a major challenge for resistance and quality breeding. To gain a better understanding of the influence of drought stress on the starch synthesis and resulting structure, barley starches of different genotypes and locations are investigated using various analytical parameter like gelatinisation temperature AM/AP ratio, A/B granule distribution, crystallinity of the starch as well as molecular mass distribution of the dextrins (A4F).Despite technological adjustments, breweries are confronted with strong quality issues such as long or incomplete saccharification time, yield losses, insufficient fermentation degrees up to prolonged filtration procedures or turbidity in the beer caused by insufficient enzymatic and physical starch degradation.(supported by Projektverbund BayKlimaFit 2 – TEW01C02P-77738)
Demonstration project to generate carbon-neutral electricity from brewery’s wastewater by means of a 200kW fuel cell
By Kimito Kawamura and Tomomasa Kanda, Asahi Japan
It is presumed that all brewing companies are looking for technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in order to comply with the Paris Agreement. The research and development division of Asahi Group Holdings, Ltd. (later known as Asahi Quality and Innovations, ltd. (AQI) began developing power generation technology using byproduct methane gas from anaerobic wastewater treatment process at breweries, as a fuel cell in 2016. Many attempts have been made, but they have failed due to the poisonous substances. With this system, AQI succeeded in generating continuous power from fuel cells for 10,000 hours at the laboratory level in 2019. Based on this result, a new 200kW fuel cell power generation demonstration system was developed and installed at the Ibaraki brewery of Asahi Breweries ltd. with the support of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and succeeded in generating 200kW of continuous power. In this presentation, we would like to report the contents of this technology we have developed in the hope that it will be of some help to those involved in the beer business in Europe, including our brother company Asahi Breweries Europe ltd. in reducing CO2 emissions.