Session Chair:
Jan Niewodniczanski (Managing Director Bitburger Braugruppe, DE)
Decarbonized operation – Brewing technologies for minimal energy requirement
By David De Schutter et al., AB-Inbev
Brewers around the world are decarbonizing their operations. The brewhouse, as main consumer of thermal energy, presents a big opportunity to reduce scope I and II carbon emissions. Optimizing mashing and boiling ensures most energy-efficient processing at high quality. Industrial application of very high gravity brewing and the ABI Simmer & Strip (S&S) technology prove that all lager and ale profiles, including premium, can be achieved while reducing heat load and increasing flavor stability. This study shows that management of real degree of fermentation and improved performance on boiling markers are consistently achieved. Ensuring the consistency of the quality parameters, liquor-to-grist-ratios at or below 2-to-1, and wort gravities of above 20°P are already industrially applied. Additionally, S&S technology reduces evaporation rates down to as low as 1%. The boiling markers as key indicators for optimal stripping with minimal heat load, together with the unaffected sugar profile, prove the benefits for brewing most environmentally friendly while keeping the same flavor profile. The energy savings, depending on the brewhouse setup, amount to 10-20% of the total brewing process.
Stripping-gas free Deaeration of Water by Cold Steam Vapor – a revolutionary Degassing Technology
By Stefan Meyering et al., Corosys
Water deaeration has become more and more important in recent years: Brewers and beverage producers value product quality and low oxygen levels. At the same time, the industry is facing the challenges of climate change and a CO2 market that has become unpredictable. Conventional degassing utilizes carbon dioxide as a strip gas and is increasingly becoming a problem when it comes to environmental demands and CO2 pricing. This talk will show that degassing no longer necessarily requires an externally supplied strip gas and how this EU-patented technology works.
Design of a novel structure for a regenerable-aid beer filtration
By Nicolas Declercq and Sonia Collin, UC Louvain
The current generations of regenerable-aid filtration make it possible to obtain a filtrate whose quality meets the requirements of the brewers. However the length of the filtration cycles coupled with the delicate regeneration of the regenerable-aid does not allow this technology to be sufficiently attractive. This new technology will only be successful if it guarantees the quality, optimizes the cost/hl and contributes to reduce the environmental footprint. Several forms of particles have already been considered: spheres, fibers, angular particles as well as several materials: polyolefins, polyamides, polystyrene, coated silica…The present innovation has to be considered as the implementation of an original design in the form of an asymmetrical heterogeneous bulb particle. This specific three-dimensional structure in incompressible crystalline material will lead to longer cycle times. Thanks to his specific design the regeneration of the adjuvant may be done by alternating turbulent and laminar flow and by successive steps of solubilization and sterilization. There will be no use of caustic soda, which allows to guarantee an optimal integrity of the adjuvant in time.