The Esser test as a tool above and beyond beer filtration

Tool for process water treatment | In 1972, Karl Diether Esser presented his membrane filter test for evaluating filterability of beer [1]. At that time, it was important to identify beer with poor filtration properties as simply and early as possible. The question arises today whether the Esser test could also be used nowadays as a valuable tool for applications above and beyond beer filtration.

Operational flexibility in water treatment

Water and energy savings | When preparing a reliable and up-to-date demand forecast, it is possible to operate machinery and plants in the utility supply section, reducing fluctuations and thus making it more efficient. This presupposes that the equipment has a wide operating range. This dual approach has been adapted in a cooperation project supported by Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU – German Federal Foundation for the Environment) and implemented using brewing liquor and process water treatment with the help of a reverse osmosis plant as an example. The main results are presented below.

Innovative System for Brewery Wastewater Treatment

Promising technology | The Life-ANSWER project (Advanced Nutrient Solutions With Electrochemical Recovery) aims to provide an innovative technology that integrates electrocoagulation and microbial electrochemistry for treatment of wastewater originating from the agri-food industry. The ANSWER system makes it possible to reuse the treated water, producing enriched biogas (CH₄ + H₂) and fertiliser from wastewater.

Carrier-based Anaerobic Wastewater  Treatment – a Unique Solution (Part 2)

New aerobic system design | The impact of environmental matters on business performance in the food and beverage industry is becoming greater and will continue to do so. In the dynamic field of food and beverage wastewater treatment growing numbers of new systems have been tested over the past decades. Aqana-Aqwise, an Israeli-Dutch joint venture has been increasingly successful with a reliable, ingeniously simple, very efficient and robust solution for handling these industries’ effluents.

Carrier-based Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment – a Unique Solution (Part 1)

Committed to sustainability | The impact of environmental matters on business performance in the food and beverage industry is increasing and will continue to do so. In the dynamic field of food and beverage wastewater treatment increasing numbers of new systems have been tested over the past decades. Aqana-Aqwise, an Israeli-Dutch joint venture has been increasingly successful with a reliable, ingeniously simple, very efficient and robust solution for handling these industries’ effluents.

Brewing in the Desert

Reducing the water footprint | Breweries have been amongst the pioneers in sustainable use of natural resources. Apart from quantity, water quality is also a continuous reason for concern. Sourcing top quality brewing water in arid regions implies membrane based solutions allowing removing undesired constituents as well as maximal water recovery.

Building a Water Resilient Future

Water crisis | A few weeks ago marked the tenth anniversary of the financial crisis that sparked a sharp escalation in the cost of credit for banks, created a panic in financial markets, and led directly to all the other tumultuous events of the following year that cost tens of billions of euros. Much has since been written about the crisis of 2007 and whether lessons have been learned. Why were so many early warning signs ignored? One of the key learnings is a renewed focus on “stress testing”.

Emission-Free Water Degasification

Water Degasification 2.0 | Degasification has become a widely established process unit operation for water treatment in the brewing and beverage industry. Depending on the particular industrial sector and use of degassed water, residual oxygen levels below 10 ppb are required. Use of a stripping gas, mainly CO₂, in rare cases N2, is usual practice in all processes generally used in the beverage industry. Thanks to a new technology developed by corosys, no stripping gas and no thermal energy or chemicals are required. According to the company, the same low residual oxygen concentrations as in the most effective conventional processes are achieved.

Biogas production from brewery yeast in an EGSB reactor

Experience over a five-year period of full throughput using anaerobic co-digestion of brewery yeast for biogas production is described in this contribution. The brewery, with a total amount of available yeast (0.7 v/v %), had a 26.2 % increase in COD load and a 38.5 % increase in biogas production resulting in an increase in the biomethane/natural gas substitution ratio in the brewery from 10 % to 16 %.

New water treatment plant for Backus y Johnston

Backus y Johnston is the largest brewing group in Peru with breweries in Lima (Ate), Chiclayo (Motupe), Arequipa, Cusco and Pucallpa. Well-known brands such as Cusqueña, Arequipeña or Pilsen Callao belong to the Group’s portfolio as well as soft drinks and mineral waters including San Mateo products. These brands, well-known beyond the borders of Peru, owe their success to consistent excellent quality that is ensured and continuously monitored with state of the art technology.

Energy and water management in the brewery – Part 3

Many different technical solutions for improving the environmental performance in a brewery are widely available from the major brewhouse suppliers. In part 1 of this series, the combination of a vapour condenser, condensate cooler, heat storage tank (stratification tank) and wort preheater was discussed. This is the obvious choice for any new brewery for recovery and reuse of thermal energy, even though this solution is not always a guarantee that energy is effectively recovered and reused. Often there is an imbalance between heat recovery and heat reuse. In spite of the benefits, surprisingly few breweries use stratification tanks.

The first low-energy brewery in Austria

Energy-conscious brewing | Energy efficient practices in microbreweries and brewpubs reach a limit very rapidly due to the small volumes they produce. After a batch is brewed, a volume of hot brewing liquor correspondent to that of the cast-out wort is generated through the process of wort chilling, for which there is no practical use. This is where the principles of low-energy brewing can be applied. The brewing equipment is heated using a buffer tank filled with hot water from the heating system, and at the end of the brewing process, all of the thermal energy is returned to the heating system, where it can be utilized for other heating purposes.