With this award, dena honoured the sustainable energy savings, which have been achieved with the new brewhouse of the private brewery from Straubing. This new brewhouse was built in cooperation with Ziemann Holvrieka GmbH, Ludwigsburg in 2013. Due to the highly efficient brewhouse work with the Colibri, Lotus and Shark, the gravity conveyance due to the cascade construction as well as numerous other energy-optimized measures, the heat energy consumption decreased by more than 40 percent compared to the old brewhouse. The required electrical energy decreased by about 10 percent, while the yield increased by about three percent.
The German Energy Agency ‘dena’ was founded in autumn 2000 and is based in Berlin. dena’s shareholders are the Federal Republic of Germany, the KfW Group, Allianz SE, Deutsche Bank AG and DZ BANK AG.
‘dena’ supports the implementation of the energy turnaround in politics, economy and the society. An important element is the ‘Best Practice in Energy Efficiency’ label, which is granted for implemented energy efficiency measures, which have an exemplary character due to the effects achieved. The initiative ‘Energy Efficiency’ is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
The first step towards an energy-autonomous brewery
The construction of the new brewhouse was the first step towards an ‘energy-autonomous brewery’. This concept was also developed in close cooperation with Ziemann Holvrieka and won the ‘Federal Award 2013 for Outstanding Innovative Craft Achievement’. The aim is to obtain the total primary energy of the Karmeliten Brauerei almost completely from renewable energy sources.
For this purpose, various actions and measures shall be implemented within the next 1.5 years. In March, for example, a biogas-driven micro gas turbine shall be installed for the electricity and heat generation. In addition, it is planned to use the solar-generated process heat for process steps with high heating temperatures, using Fresnel collectors. An absorption-type refrigeration system, with propane as a natural refrigerant, will additionally convert the low process heat, recovered from the solar thermal process, into process cold. Moreover, it is planned to use various storage facilities in order to buffer the excess heat and cold and to provide this energy in case of need. Another measure is to recover the process heat and to reuse it for the bottle cleaning, the brewing water heating and the heating of the building. Highly contaminated waste water shall be converted into biogas, which, in turn, shall be used within the brewery.
With this plan a total of approx. 1.4 million kilowatt hours of primary energy can be saved. Compared to the existing plant, this corresponds to a reduction potential of more than 30 percent. Thus, the CO2 emissions can be reduced by approximately 900 tons per year. The Federal Environment Ministry supports this project with more than one million euros from the Environment Innovation Programme.
