Apoldaer Vereinsbrauerei cuts energy use by 38% with GEA process optimization

Optimization success by the numbers:

• Energy recovery rate of 50% before modification to 85.3% after.

• 38% energy savings per batch: the brewery now saves more than 88,000 kilowatt hours of thermal energy per year.

• Evaporation rate reduced from 5% to 3.8% with an improvement in wort quality.

Understand the challenges by evaluating the entire brewing process.

As part of a service visit, GEA technologist Heiko Reichert conducted an energy consultation to assess the entire brewing process. His observations, measurements, and recommendations were summarized in a service report. He found that there were too many manual interventions to compensate for fluctuations in raw material quality, that kept the brewers constantly adjusting and monitoring during lautering and wort boiling. 

Both the residents and the brewery also complained about significant emissions from the steam chimney during boiling. This caused odor disturbances and resulted in the loss of valuable energy. The energy loss was caused by fluctuating evaporation and the variable operation of the vapor condenser.
Depending on the beer variety, the wort foamed up during boiling to such an extent that up to 5 hectoliters of wort were lost through the steam chimney. The brewers had to continuously monitor this step to intervene when necessary.

The main problem was that the boiling and heating of the mash were sometimes done simultaneously and with different demands. This increased steam consumption, especially when the demands accumulated to peaks.  

Optimize the wort boiling process with Intelligent Wort Management software as the effective solution.

Based on the recommendations from the GEA service report, the brewery decided to optimize the wort boiling process, including heating, boiling, and energy recovery. Additional measurement technology and the new GEA Intelligent Wort Management (IWM+) software were installed. This enabled the regulation of all thermal energy flows during boiling and the real-time calculation of the efficiencies of the wort heater and vapor condenser. The wort could now be boiled in a continuous, uniform way, reducing energy wastage. Evaporation levels were reduced to the minimum necessary to maintain product quality.

By automating and making technical changes, the process was stabilized, giving the brewers more time to focus on brewing instead of constantly monitoring machine settings. Real-time analysis allowed for the immediate detection of potential process issues, rather than discovering them too late to fix.

A Comprehensive Energy Recovery System was introduced allowing the recovered steam to become the primary heating medium in the brewery.

GEA IWM+ not only directly influences the wort boiling process and automatically reacts to internal and external influencing factors, but also integrates the energy storage system.

This optimization process enabled the Apoldaer Vereinsbrauerei to reduce its long-term energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

The improved efficiency of the brewing process resulted in saving more than 88,000 kilowatt-hours of thermal energy per year.

The problem of odor emissions from the steam chimney, which bothered the nearby residents, was immediately solved by adjusting the vapor condenser (PfaDuKo) that recovers energy from the steam during boiling and allows a large portion of the wort to be heated to boiling temperature. The optimal adjustment of the PfaDuKo significantly reduces energy demand and odor emissions.
The IWM+ software regulates the vapor condenser according to the energy input during boiling and optimizes the venting of the PfaDuKo to remove non-condensable gases in the system. The energy recovery rate increased from 50% before modification to 85.3% after.

Overall, the Apoldaer Vereinsbrauerei saves 38% of energy per batch, which amounts to 88,000 kilowatt-hours of thermal energy per year. Steam emissions during the boiling process have been eliminated. The evaporation rate was reduced from 5% to 3.8% with an improvement in the quality of the wort.

To ensure that the product quality remained the same after the modernization, samples were taken before and after the modification and analyzed in an external laboratory. The results showed a slight improvement in the relevant parameters, despite the reduction in evaporation. The necessary modifications were completed in just four days with no interruption in operations during commissioning.

This success story demonstrates how targeted optimization of the brewing process through automation and technological assistance can lead to significant energy savings. Through collaboration with GEA, the brewery was able to increase efficiency while maintaining product quality highlighting the importance of innovation and sustainability.

The energy efficiency project was co-financed by the Free State of Thuringia through funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).