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Optimising Energy in the Brewery Boilerhouse
31/03/2021
Did you know that recovering heat from boiler blowdown for use elsewhere can recapture up to 80% of energy?
How to optimise energy use in the brewery boilerhouse?
You may feel that your boilerhouse just needs to keep doing its job, and as long as it continues to pump out the steam your process needs, you don’t need to worry about it – right?
But in fact, that’s not right.
The reality is, it’s likely that you could identify numerous opportunities for efficiency and productivity improvements in your boilerhouse, you just need to know how.
The often overlooked truth is that making efficiency improvements in your boilerhouse will help reduce your energy consumption, help you reach your CO2 targets and will have a lasting positive impact throughout your brewing process.
And with ever increasing economic pressures and such challenging trading environments - felt acutely in the brewing industry, you need to be shrewd in identifying the most effective ways to save costs, energy and water.
Making efficiency improvements in your boilerhouse will help reduce your energy consumption, help you reach your CO2 targets and will have a lasting positive impact throughout your brewing process
If you are concerned that you’ll have to spend a great deal in order to realise these benefits you may be surprised to learn that relatively small investments in your boilerhouse systems can result in significant water and energy savings, as well as passing on impactful benefits throughout the process.
For example:
- Effective control systems (level and TDS) on your boiler ensure operation at the right capacity and quality, avoiding the associated risks of carryover and effects on steam quality. This results in less water waste.
- Installing meters to measure energy and flow will help identify areas for improvement that may otherwise be overlooked.
- Installing efficient condensate recovery systems, allows you to receive the condensate from your process and return it for use in the boilerhouse – delivering potential water and energy savings.
- Flash Recovery systems recover heat that may otherwise be lost from a breweries high pressure condensate return, allowing it to be used to increase feedwater temperature.
These are just a few examples of how optimising your boilerhouse performance will generate positive results and will have a beneficial knock-on impact on the performance of your process.
To find out where the quick wins could be uncovered in your boilerhouse, seek out the advice of a specialist or get a boilerhouse audit.
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