Energy Management in the Malting and Brewing Industry

France's malting and brewing sector is booming, with annual production of 1.4 million tonnes of malt and 21 million hectolitres (hl) of beer (2022), making beer France's favorite drink.

Production methods are currently evolving, with the development of small microbreweries or "craft" breweries. More than 2,600 breweries are in operation, but only 21 of them produce more than 100,000 hl a year.

The sector is continuing to reduce its energy consumption, which now stands at around 1,500 GWh thermal (5,400 TJ) and 500 GWh electrical (1,800 TJ) (Franck Jolibert estimates).

Energy costs in a brewery are high, depending largely on the plant and the type of beer produced, and represent between 8 and 10% of the gross cost price.

Substantial optimization efforts have of course already been undertaken, but there are still potential energy savings to be made by rationalizing processes and reducing fixed losses.

The techniques and methods used will vary according to the size of the company.

The stages that consume the most thermal energy are malt drying (thermal recovery and heat pumps are used), wort boiling (vapour recovery with hot water production is common, but the use of heat pumps – and steam compression are also becoming more common), pasteurization and the various stages of cleaning and disinfection.

As far as electricity is concerned, the most important items are ventilation in the malting plant (energy-saving motors and VEV) and cold production in the brewery.

Brewers are striving for carbon neutrality by developing energy sobriety and the circular economy: recycling of by-products, development of deposits, local production...

Following on from the first part, which presents the malting and brewing processes, the second part analyzes ways of improving energy consumption in malting, then brewing or hot block, fermentation or cold block, and finally packaging. Utilities and general actions are detailed in the third section, with a focus on heat pumps, by-product recovery and cogeneration. In conclusion, the report sheds light on processes that could be developed in the future.