Distillieries - Environmental Clearance

DistilleriesHops are added to the beer to give it a bitter taste and a pleasing aroma. It can be addedin the form of natural hops, or more commonly, as hop extract or powder.WaterBrewing is a water-intensive process and large amounts of water are consumed in theproduction of beer and wine for the following processes:CoolingCleaning of packaging material (e.g., bottle washing)PasteurizationRinsing and cleaning of process equipmentSteeping, mashing, sparging, etc. (typically 5 cubic metres (m 3 ) of water is used toproduce one tonne of malted barley)Cleaning of floors and equipmentSoap lubricant on conveyors in the packaging areaVacuum pump for filler; andFlushing of fillerIn a study of water and wastewater management in the breweries of South Africa, it was(BPCE, 1986) reported that the specific water intake (SWI) in the brewing process rangedfrom 5.5-8.8 m 3 of water per m 3 of beer produced, with a typical value of 6.65 m 3 /m 3 . Afurther breakdown of the usage into the main water-consuming areas is provided below.Water consumption generally ranges from 4-10 hL /hL beer depending on the packagingand pasteurizing process, the age of the plant and the type of equipment. Furthermore,raw water temperature will affect water consumption, as water is often used as a coolingmedium. A recent study at Heineken determined that breakdown of water use in abrewery (6.5 (hectoliter) hL/hL beer) was as follows (UNEP, 1995):Raw material 1.3 hL /hLCleaning 2.9 hL /hLCooling water 0.7 hL /hLOther (domestic, losses) 1.6 hL /hLHowever, water consumption may amount to two to three times the above figures,especially where the raw water temperature is high (UNEP, 1995).Energy consumptionAs far as energy is concerned heat consumption is influenced by process and productioncharacteristics such as packing method, pasteurization technique, type of equipment, byproducttreatment, etc. In a brewery (without a heat recovery system from boiling wort),heat consumption can be two to three times higher than a well run brewery. Electricityconsumption, in a well run brewery, is about 8-12 kwh/hL, depending on process andproduction characteristics. Some breweries consume up to twice as much due toinefficient production and lack of energy consciousness (UNEP, 1995).Table 3-10: Benchmark for Energy ConsumptionOutputs per Unit of Product Unit BenchmarkEnergyTGM for Distillery Industry 3-22 August 2010