“HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R.

STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

ENERGY SAVING WORT BOILING SISTEM

IN BREWING FACTORY

Mariana Geta TOMESCU (cas. Cismarescu)*, Carol CSATLOS**

Faculty of Food and Tourism, ”Transilvania” University of Braşov, Braşov, Romania

*

** Faculty of Food and Tourism, ”Transilvania” University of Braşov, Braşov, Romania

Abstract: Steam is produced on boiling. This steam is referred to as (water) vapour. If the vapour is
allowed to escape unhindered from the chimney, people in the neighbourhood can smell that the brewery
has cast out wort again. This can be considered to be odour pollution. Moreover the evaporated water
mass contains a great deal of energy which in the casa escapes through the chimney. To convert 1 kg of
water at 1000C into 1kg of stream at 1000C, about 2260 kJ = 90 psi, are required. If the stream condenses
again in the surroundings, this heat energy is released again and completely lost to the brewery.

Keywords: steam, energy, vapour compression, boiling,, energy saver, hot water,
thermocompression.

1. INTRODUCTION

Energy usage during wort boiling - the wort leading to a percentage evaporation of about
kettle is the greatest energy user in the entire 12 % in the copper, theny, in conventional
wort production process. boiling for each 1 hl of cast wort about 14
Very careful consideration must therefore be kWh = 56,00 BTU/bbl are required. (1 kWh =
given to how to keep the energy usage as low 3,6MJ = 0,948 BTU)
as possible since energy is very expensive.
Energy usage is quoted in kWh or BTU or kj. 2. VAPOUR CONDESATION
Common fuels have the following thermal
values (natural gas 11,20 kWh/m3, fuel oil It is therefore useful to recover at least part of
10,14 kWh/l, heavy oil ll,l6 kWh/kg, hard the heat of evaporation.
coal 8,95kWh/kg). This is done by building in a kettle vapour
In the brewhouse an 80% efficiency can be condenser in the kettle chimney.
expected, i.e about 80 % of the energy is If the steam is condensed here the heat of
utilized in the brewhouse. evaporation is recovered. In the kettle vapour
The starting point of our considerations is the condenser (Fig.1) the steam is passed against
energy usage obtained with a conventional pipes of pockets, through which water is
copper. Energy used in conventional boiling - pumped, and the water is thereby warmed
if the wort is boiled for 90 min at 1000C whilst the steam gives up its heat of
evaporation and condenses.
 “HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R. STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

Fig.1.Kettle vapour condenser (Pfaduko)

1-wort kettle; 2-vapour chimney; 3- adjustable valve; 4-heat exchange chamber;
5-extractor; 6-blow-off pipe.

Depending on the subsequent purposes for vapour condensers are built with one stage
which the heat is used,the steam is cooled in cooling (Fig. 2.). Each hl of evaporated wort
one or two stages and hot and/or warm water produces 0.8 hl of hot water at 800C.
thereby produced. Nowadays most kettle

Fig. 2.Kettle vapour condenser (Pfaduko)

1-heat exchange vessel; 2-vapour chimney; 3- water vapour; 4-hot water outlet; 5-warm water inlet;
6-condensate drain.

The volume of steam is decreased form of a single-layer plate heat exchanger.

considerably on condensing to form water and The vapour flows in at the top of every second
the water can easily be removed. Nowadays plate, and the condensed water runs out at the
the kettle vapour condenser is often built in the bottom, whilst the cooling water flows in a
 “HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R. STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

counterflow from below upwards in the plates

between them and is thereby heated
case one speaks of thermocompression.
Mechanical vapour compression is regarded as
the state of the art and thermocompression is
much less frequently found in breweries.

3.1 Mechanical vapour compression

(Fig.2.a). The vapour produced is mechanically
Fig.2.a.Plate heat exchanger as kettle vapour compressed to an overpressure of 0.2-0.5 bar
condenser (3-7psi) by a turbo, screw or rotating piston
1-vapour; 2-condensate; 3-cold water; 4-hot water (Roots) compressor. As a result of this
compression the temperature of the steam is
On heat utilisation grounds the cooling water increased and it can be used again directly for
used is as hot as possible so that it is brought heating purposes. However a condensate is
as close as possible to boiling point through sprayed in previously to reduce the
the condensation of the vapour. superheating. With vapour com pression steam
and energy can therefore be spared since only
3. VAPOUR COMPRESSION the energy necessary to drive the compressor
is needed (about 5 % of the primary energy
The vapour produced on boiling is at about requirement, i.e. 95 % of the primary energy
1000C and thus can not be used any further to requirement is spared). Heating up of the wort
heat the wort. If, however, the vapour is necessarily begins with the supply of fresh
compressed to a few tenths of a bar steam (Fig. 3.) from a boiler into the wort
overpressure, the temperature of the vapour is copper. The wort is forced by the circulating
raised to 102-1080C and it can be used again pump (4) through the external heater (3),
for heating. In this way the heat consumed for heated up, and returned to the wort copper
evaporation in the wort boiling process can be (1).When the desired boiling temperature of
directly recovered again. 102 to 1060C is reached at the heater outlet,
Vapour compression is achieved either: the compressor (2) is started and the vapour
- by means of a mechanical compressor, in produced (9) is compressed to an overpressure
which case one speaks of mechanical vapour of 0,09-0,25 bar 102 to 1060C . The boiling
compression, or process is thereby maintained in operation.
- by means of a steam jet compressor which
requires steam from a boiler to drive it, in this
 “HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R. STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

Fig.3. Mechanical vapour compression plant

1- wort kettle; 2-compressor; 3-external boiler; 4-wort circulation pump; 5- condensate vessel;
6-condensate pump; 7-kettle vapour condenser; 8-safety valve; 9- vapour; 10-live steam;
11-cold water; 12-hot water; 13-condensate
In principle the compressor only balances out 3.2. Thermocompression
the loss arising. Vapour compression can also
be installed in existing plants and is also of In the thermocompression process the vapour
interest to breweries which do not want to use is sucked in by a steam jet pump (Fig.4) and
low pressure boiling for quality reasons. There compressed. This pump consists of a head (1)
is an increased pressure in the external heater with a jet (2) through which live steam from a
but not in the copper. However the system boiler with an overpressure of at least 8 and up
only operates when absolutely free of air. to 18 bar is passed. Because of the high
Consequently fully automatic air removal velocity of the live steam the vapour is
valves are always installed at the lowest point entrained and in the following mixing section
of the system because the heavier air sinks to (3) the kinetic energy produced as a result of
the bottom. The saving of fresh steam is the increased velocity is transformed into a
substantial with vapour compression. Because pressure energy of 0,1 to 0,4 bar overpressure.
the heat of evaporation is used again to heat up
the wort there is almost no excess hot water. A
vacuum prevention system is needed for the
copper to prevent air being drawn in . There
are however disadvantages to set against the
advantages:
ƒ the plant engineering is complicated;
ƒ maintenance work is necessary;
ƒ peak electricity demands may occur as Advantages with thermocompression are:
a result of the power used by the ƒ trouble free operation with little
compressor. maintenance required;
ƒ no peaks in the electricity
consumption.
 “HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R. STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

Disadvantages are: thermocompression only makes sense if the

ƒ increased production of hot water, and, hot water produced can also be used.
ƒ the high steam pressure required
(possibly 18 bar; new pipework 4. LOW PRESSURE BOILING WITH AN
needed). ENERGY SAVER
Nevertheless thermocompression represents a
less expensive alternative to mechanical The heat exchange occurring at various places
vapour compression not only for small in general produces warm, rather than hot,
breweries but also for large breweries with an water and most of this can not be used.
additional requirement for hot water. However, very hot water is required which, if
Comparisons of energy cost savings per brew made a little hotter, can be used for heating
(100 hl and 10% evaporation) using vapour purposes.
compression instead of conventional boiling For this purpose it is necessary to make use of
show substantial differences. small temperature differences and to store the
The space required for the necessary heat hot water without cooling until needed. This
exchange surfaces of the internal boiler can be achieved with heat insulated energy
however usually causes considerable storage systems (Fig. 5.).
problems. Moreover, introduction of
Fig.4 Steam jet injector
1-head; 2-jet; 3-mixing stretch; 4-driving steam;
5-vapour; 6-mixing.

Fig.5.Energy storage system

1- wort collection tank; 2 - wort heater; 3 - wort kettle; 4 - kettle vapour condenser;
5 - energy storage vessel ; 6-mash tun kettle.
The water evaporated in the wort kettle (3) is,
as vapour, condensed in the kettle vapour
 “HENRI COANDA” “GENERAL M.R. STEFANIK”
AIR FORCE ACADEMY ARMED FORCES ACADEMY
ROMANIA SLOVAK REPUBLIC

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE of SCIENTIFIC PAPER

AFASES 2012
Brasov, 24-26 May 2012

condenser (4) whilst the counterflow of - in the case of low pressure boiling with an
cooling water is heated to 970C. The water energy saver about 60-70 %.
heated to 970C is fed back into the upper part
of the energy storage vessel (5). The wort from CONCLUSIONS
the wort collection underback (1) or the mash
in the mash kettle (6) can be heated up by this Energy saving as a result of conversion to low
hot water from the upper part of the energy pressure boiling. With low pressure boiling the
storage reservoir. Other hot water energy total boiling time is reduced considerably
sources can also be stored - care must be because of the higher temperature and the
taken, however, that the temperature of the consequently accelerated dissolving and
stored hot water is not greatly reduced thereby. conversion processes. If, instead of the
The hot water is stored in a well insulated previous 12 % (10 to 15 %) only 5 to 7 % is
energy storage vessel. In it the boundary now evaporated, 6 kWh/hl cast wort is spared
between very hot water and hot water is in comparison with conventional boiling so
displaced depending on requirements. The that in low pressure boiling/or each 1 hl of cast
mixing zone depends on the design of the wort about 9 kWh = 36,000 BTU/bbI are
storage vessel and is only 10-20 cm in the case required. That is a large saving which arises
of narrow reservoirs. With such a storage simply from the reduction of the boiling time.
system waste heat can be stored for long times
and can be called upon at any time. It is REFERENCES
important that by intelligent use of very small
temperature differences the temperature in the 1. Back, W.: Journal of brewerwit 42 (1995),
reservoir is not lowered. p. 2068-2076.
The saving of primary energy relative to 2. Banu C., et.al.,(2006), Tratat de industrie
conventional boiling without heat recovery is: alimentara, Bucuresti, Editura ASAB.
- in the case of low pressure boiling about 40- 3. Duchek, P.: Journal of brewerwit 24
50%; (1993), p. 1053-1059.
4. Meyer-Pietroff, R.: Journal of Brewerwit
33 (1995), p. 1618-1627