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• Need for reliable power to maintain exact heating and cooling during brewing. "The worst place to lose power is in the brewhouse," one brewery official noted, since it would spoil a whole batch worth tens of thousands of dollars.
• Beverage safety/sanitation and EH&S concerns (especially in larger breweries) are key drivers in the brewing industry.
• Energy-intensive industry – over $120 million on electricity purchased for heating and power each year (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Spent grain from early processes and spent yeast from fermentation process could undoubtedly be turned into methane with anaerobic digesters. This would avoid landfill charges and produce cost-effective methane to feed into onsite CHP systems. (Industry expert)
Reciprocating engines, with a power size range of 30kW–8MW, generate engine jacket heat from 180-200°F, and exhaust heat at around 1200 °F. Industrial turbines, with a power range from 1-20+ MW, generates heat from 900-1100°F. This heat can be recovered and used to heat or cool products in a variety of food processing steps such as:
• High thermal loads in several steps in the brewing process--e.g.in the brew/mash step that activates enzymes with heat, and in heating and cooling liquids processes
• Grist from the roller mill is mixed with hot water, and the mixture must be heated further to form mash (Brewer's Handbook)
• Wort must be boiled from 1-2 hours (Brewer's Handbook)
• Wort must be cooled from 95-96 degrees Celsius to 0-5 degrees Celsius, typically through use of plate heat exchangers (Brewer's Handbook)
• Temperature must be regulated during fermentation to facilitate the reaction (Brewer's Handbook)
• Beers may be clarified using lagering, centrifugation, or fining – lagering requires cold temperature of 1-2 degrees Celsius, and occasionally use of a pressurized tank (Brewer's Handbook)
• Most beers are pasteurized, requiring temperatures from 60-75 degreed Celsius for up to 30 seconds (Brewer's Handbook)
Malted barley is first crushed in a roller mill, then mixed with hot water to form mash in a mash tun. The mash is heated to turn the starch into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. After mashing, the clear liquid part of the mash (the wort) is separated from the solid component and boiled. Boiling times differ for different kinds of beers. The wort is cooled to precipitate out the polyphenol/proteins to enhance the clarity of the wort. The precipitate, called cold break, is removed from the wort, which is aerated. Fermentation is then allowed to take place. After fermentation, the beer is matured using a second fermentation. Beer is clarifyed using either centrifugation, lagering, or fining, and then is filtered and carbonated. Before bottling, some form of pasteurization occurs to prevent growth of harmful bacteria and microorganisms. (Brewer's Handbook)
American Society of Brewing Chemists
BevExpo 2004 - September 29-October 1, 2004
ASBC Annual Meeting - June 11-15, 2005
Anheuser-Busch
New Belgium Brewing Company - http://www.eere.energy.gov/de/pdfs/road_show/fort_belgium.pdf
Miller Brewing Company - http://www.escenter.org/supercenter/PubResFrameSet.htm
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