Presenter: Heiko Grimm, Norit Haffmans, Rockford, IL.
Factors including increased environmental awareness and the desire to limit costs are driving breweries to be as inventive as ever in reducing energy consumption throughout the entire operation. A broad size range of breweries can conserve energy by taking a closer look at the CO2 evaporation process. Energy conservation is achieved by tying the evaporation process with the local refrigeration system. By combining a hot return loop from the cooling plant with the liquid CO2 stream that is supposed to be evaporated, the brewery can keep the “deep cold energy” in the process. Additionally, a possible strain on the cooling plant during the high season can be reduced. Three solutions to tie the streams together have been identified and proven useful. Two of these directly use the hot glycol return loop to evaporate the liquid CO2 and indirectly use an intermediate cooling medium to transfer the energy into the house ammonia system. For the third option, when a brewery has a CO2 recovery plant a combination of the CO2 stream to be liquefied as well as the CO2 stream to be evaporated to the consumers has shown the greatest energy and OPEX savings with a LiquiVap system. The LiquiVap simultaneously liquefies gas entering the system from the fermenters and vaporizes liquid CO2 coming from the storage tanks. The return on investment for breweries with capacities larger than 500,000 bbl is a reasonable two years. In addition, a LiquiVap system enables the brewery to invest in a plant that has a smaller, more energy efficient and less costly cooling and vaporization system due to the fact that the LiquiVap system takes over some of the work load.
Heiko Grimm graduated in 2007 from Technische Universität München-Weihenstephan, Germany, with a master’s degree in brewing and beverage technology. After the conclusion of his master’s thesis on new beer stabilization methods, he began working for Haffmans BV in June 2007 as product manager CO2 units responsible for the units and inline business of Norit Haffmans worldwide. In 2010, he transferred to product manager CO2 systems, working closely with North American representatives. In January 2011, he transferred to the United States to work directly with customers in the North American market. He is currently responsible for the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Caribbean region for all CO2 and brewing systems sales of the Norit group.
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