Applying expert knowledge – An interview with Dr. Roland Pahl-Dobrick on the future of the brewing and beverage industry

Improving efficiency and sustainability | Our world has recently undergone considerable transformation within a short period of time. We are currently experiencing or are contending with the consequences of the Covid pandemic, the war in the Ukraine, the effects of climate change, product shortages, increasing energy and raw material costs as well as labor shortages and disrupted supply chains. It seems that we are being relentlessly confronted with ever-growing challenges – especially within just the past few months. Some issues were able to be anticipated, while others were not. How should the brewing and beverage industry approach these challenges and which positions should it take in the future? We posed these questions to the representatives of various companies in our industry, with an eye to both the current and long-term challenges of our time. Today, we are speaking to Dr. Roland Pahl-Dobrick, Beer Market Manager at Pall Corporation.

Currently, the industry is facing numerous challenges. Which of these is the most urgent for your company? Why are these issues viewed as the most important from your perspective, and how are you addressing them?

Dr. Roland Pahl-Dobrick: Pall has placed a focus on sustainability. Digitalization and IoT is becoming an inherent part of our system solutions to optimize the value for our customers, however, developing systems that help improve breweries’ sustainability performance is a major driver for today’s developments. The usage of IoT is an example of how our products are elevated to optimize value for our customers. This is of course, what drives almost everybody today, but if you look into Pall’s history in brewing equipment, it becomes obvious that sustainability really was behind a lot of the thinking – already years ago.

Pall has a history of supplying Kieselgur filtration, originating from the Seitz-Schenk heritage. Kieselgur filtration absolutely dominated the brewing world’s filtration lines, and when done right, produces wonderful beers, but it also has undeniable issues. Rather than accept that Kieselgur filtration was the only way, Pall decided to shift focus away from the Kieselgur filters and develop an alternative. Pall was able to listen to customers and leverage the expertise gained from manufacturing Kieselgur filter lines, to develop technology that targeted the drawbacks of Kieselgur filtration and addressed pain points of the technology.

Similar to this is the story of PVPP stabilization (Polyvinypolypyrrolidone used to adsorb polyphenols from beer), another conventional technology that had room for improvement. Pall again leveraged expertise and first-hand experience to develop the CBS (Continuous Beer Stabilization) system, that reduces utility consumption and PVPP loss significantly.

Additionally, other systems that Pall has been offering the brewing world for years are membrane systems for cold stabilization to replace pasteurization and beer recovery from yeast utilizing tangential flow systems.

I think that these examples show the approach, developing from conventional technology, utilizing special know-how.

New approaches are able to help improve the three aspects of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. Pall has a history of prioritizing sustainability in the brewing space and is well positioned to help brewers become more sustainable. If I may add a personal note: I joined Pall only a few years ago. When I was asked during my job interviews why I would consider joining Pall, I said that I believed that Pall holds technology that the industry really needs nowadays.

How do you evaluate the relevance of other challenges? How are you dealing with them?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: There are so many challenges at the moment for so many of us in the brewing industry, that it makes almost no sense to list them all. When it comes to how best to deal with these challenges, I think, right now, remaining a reliable and trusted partner is critical. Apart from obvious problems like supply chain issues, there are also fundamental upheavals An example can be regions in which the use of local raw materials is to be prioritized over imported ones and the basic conditions in an existing process are therefore changing. Something like this is best addressed through flexibility. In the case of an OEM, it makes sense to plan and design equipment in such a way that varying basic raw materials, short product life cycles and changed customer expectations can be managed with as little effort as possible.

How do you see these issues evolving in the future – both for you as a company and for the industry as a whole? Could the challenges you face now provide impetus for further innovation?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: Definitely. I remember back in 2015, I was asked by a brewing publication, “What is the most important challenge for the brewing industry?”. My answer was “to increase efficiency wherever possible!”, and I believe this has only become more important since then. When I answered that question in 2015, I was mainly thinking of process optimization. Modern brewers today, however, have optimized their conventional production and filtration processes in such a way that they can often only further improve through new solutions offered to them by specialists. Those inventors and suppliers that can enable steps and leaps to more efficient and more sustainable ways of production will be those that are successful.

In your opinion, how might these various challenges be turned into opportunities?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: I really don’t want to downplay anything – some of the things that we witness today are much too grave to relate them to “minor” things like choosing a new production technology for beer.

But to answer the question in a more general sense: Pressure can open doors, e.g. in terms of people changing their mindset and allowing themselves to think beyond short-term financial goals. In a recent conversation I had with a Pall customer, it became clear that cost is no longer the biggest deciding factor when purchasing new equipment. The customer said, “In the past, if we had to decide between two technologies, we would choose the more sustainable option, but only if it was not more expensive. Nowadays we are willing to spend money on sustainability.”

And of course, leveraging technology that enables more efficient production processes will hopefully help all of us to be able to enjoy our favorite beers for a long time to come.

In which domains or areas of activity do you see these opportunities opening up, and how are you preparing for them?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: With an ever-growing population on planet Earth, raw material efficiency will become more and more important. This will be an area of growing interest. Cutting losses, but also generating new value streams is therefore something that is in focus of planning.

Next to that, Pall is making huge effort to also improve our own sustainability footprint. We are a part of the supply chain of our customers, and we need to include this into our thinking. Our own production processes need to be optimized and we need to heed our responsibility as a player in the market.

Are you currently looking for new ways to support your customers or to help them with their own issues?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: Apart from sustainability, process flexibility is needed. We see a lot of new products with short life cycles, and generally, when the product variety increases, shifts in raw material utilization also occur. All of this needs to be addressable with production equipment that is as efficient as possible and follows the process, and not the other way around. Digitalization and the Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the tools that will help to realize what is necessary and how equipment can be optimized to meet production goals.

Why would it be relevant for your customers to contemplate investments, especially given the current economic climate?

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick: Early adopters, those who are quick to jump on a trend that has the potential to completely transform the entire fabric of an industry, help to make change real. In contrast, those lagging behind will eventually stick to outdated technology. They are either no longer competitive, have difficulty accessing necessary materials, or are no longer valued by customers. The last two or three decades are full of examples of the tremendous speed at which technology has advanced. This puts some pressure on market participants to stay up-to-date in order to succeed.

Dr. Pahl-Dobrick, thank you very much for the interview!

BRAUWELT editor-in-chief Dr. Lydia Junkersfeld conducted this interview.