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The Earthy Labs CO2 Recovery System is compact enough to fit even into smaller breweries.

2/15/2023

Technical contribution
Technology
America
Asia
Europe
Beer

The CO2 Shortage in the International Brewing Industry – Part 3

CO2 capture systems for breweries tend to fall into two basic size categories: expensive, modular systems for large breweries and much smaller, more affordable systems for smaller, craft-size breweries. Both types of systems, however, operate on essentially identical technologies. In both market segments there is just one global market leader, Pentair-Haffmans for large systems and Earthy Labs for small systems.

Large and Small CO2 Capture Systems for Breweries

Many breweries, regardless of size, produce more CO2 in their fermentations than they consume. In fact, depending on a brewery’s operations, the ratio between produced and used CO2 can be as high as 3 to 1, which, at least in theory, should be enough for carbonating beer; purging process tanks; pushing beer through transfer pipes and hoses; and packaging beer in bottles, cans, or kegs. However, there are several reasons why reusing self-generated CO2 is not as simple as merely trapping it in a holding tank. This is in part because — according to survey data presented in a seminar about “Small-Scale CO2 Capture Technology” at the 2018 Craft Brewers Conference — the national average for CO2 consumption for all uses in a craft brewery is between 4 and 21 pounds per barrel of beer (approximately 1.5 to 8.1 kg/hl). Considering that one kilogram of uncompressed CO2 consumes a space of roughly one liter (roughly 1 quart), a CO2 holding tank would have to be truly gigantic.

More importantly, fermentation CO2 is laden with many unwanted volatile and non-volatile aromatic compounds and thus cannot be reused without treatment. Among the contaminants riding on fermentation CO2 are trace elements of acetaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, methanol, and nitrogen dioxide, as well as moisture and oxygen. Such impurities can cause off-flavors or even spoil the finished beer. Therefore, before any captured fermentation CO2 can be reused, it needs to be dried, de-oxygenated, and purified. In addition, once the gas is of beverage-grade quality, it also needs to be compressed.

CO2 Capture Technologies in Brief

The technology for achieving these complex goals has existed for several decades, but such systems have been economically feasible only for large-scale breweries, while smaller breweries have found it cheaper to simply purchase industrially-produced CO2 commercially (see part 1). But today, with soaring CO2 prices and CO2 shortages, this cost-benefit equation is changing, and several manufacturers, have introduced scaled-down and more affordable CO2 capture systems to meet new market demands. Breweries with an annual production of as low as 5,000 hectoliters may now be able to amortize the purchase of a CO2 recovery installation in as little as two or three years.

Virtually all CO2 recovery plants are aggregates of components, which include an up-front buffer tank — sometimes called a balloon — to receive the escaping CO2, various scrubbing devices to remove foam and contaminants riding on the fermentation gas, a gas drier, a filter (usually activated charcoal), a refrigerant-cooled condenser and compressor to liquify the gas, and, of course, a storage tank. Each carbon capture solution is unique in terms of its features and the intellectual property behind them. However, many of these solutions also leverage proven engineering know-how from many different applications, such as refrigerant condenser and compressor technologies that are used for home air conditioning systems.

All CO2 capture systems convert the trapped gas into a liquid for storage in containers of manageable sizes. This requires chilling technologies using refrigerants. In the past, chlorofluorocarbons such as freon (R-22) have been in common use, but these are being phased out to reduce the environmental impact on the ozone layer; and alternatives, such as glycol and NH3 (anhydrous ammonia; R-717) are now being phased in.

The first step in a modular CO2 recovery system is a foam trap for the escaping gas.

Large-Scale CO2 Capture Systems

There are several players in the large-scale CO2 capture field. Most of these focus on serving carbon-intensive operations in the steel, cement, refining, petrochemical, and power generation industries, while Pentair with its line of high-capacity, multimillion-dollar Haffmans brand systems has been specializing also on CO2 recovery solutions for breweries. Pentair is a diversified company headquartered in Twickenham, UK, which has been building CO2 recovery systems for larger breweries and other applications for more than a quarter century. To view several constellations of such systems for larger breweries see https://www.mybeviale.com/en/companies/p/pentair-water-process-technology-bv/co2recoveryforbeverageproducers and click on the three download links for CO2 Recovery Plant CO2 Compact Brew; CO2 Recovery Plant Eco2Brew; and CO2 Recovery Unit CRU.

Pentair/Haffmans CO2CompactBrew system is designed for breweries with an annual production volume of approximately 50,000 to 350,000 hectoliters. It is mounted on a 40-foot (12.2-meter) skid and relies on a brewery’s glycol system to chill the captured CO2 for liquefaction and storage. The next step up is the ECO2Brew CO2 recovery plant designed for breweries with a 24/7 operation and an annual output of more than 2 million hectoliters. It too runs on glycol as a coolant and takes up the space of two 40-food skids. Finally, there is the modular CO2 Recovery Unit (CRU) engineered for breweries with an annual beer output of 300,000 to more than 5 million hectoliters. It uses CO2 (R-744) and NH3 (R-717) as refrigerants.

One of the early adopters of the Earthy Labs CO2 recovery system was the Maine Beer Company in Freeport, Maine.

Small-Scale CO2 Capture Systems

Among the players in the field of smaller carbon capture technologies is market leader Earthy Labs of Austin, Texas, USA. Founded in 2017, the company was acquired in 2021 by Chart Industries, a global producer of cryogenic and liquefaction equipment in Atlanta, Georgia. Earthy Labs offers CO2 recovery units branded CiCi® that are specifically designed for food and beverage applications with annual production volumes of as low as 1,000 hectoliters and CO2 needs up to roughly 1 million kilograms or more. The Earthy Labs CiCi Oak model is roughly the size of a large household refrigerator. It is available for purchase or lease and can handle variable gas flow rates generated by tanks of different sizes and at different stages of the fermentation process. At a purchase price of roughly USD 100,000, the amortization period for this investment depends, of course, on the user’s production volume and overall CO2 needs, relative to the future volatility of the cost of commercial CO2. The CiCi Elm model uses the same technology platform and can be scaled to meet the needs of larger breweries.

Just like systems designed for mega-breweries, the CiCi® systems create a gas recycling loop from the fermenter to the conditioning tank and the packaging line. They capture the vented CO2 gas at the blow-off arm, dry and scrub it, and remove undesirable trace gases, aromas, moisture, oxygen, and volatile organic compounds before liquifying the CO2 at -34.7 °C for storage and reuse. While the brewery staff can perform essential system maintenance, such as weekly cleaning and monthly filter changes on site, the Earthly Labs staff can monitor and troubleshoot the system remotely via a cloud-based dashboard and recommend service visits by field personnel as needed.

After compression into a liquid, CO2 gas is stored in a compact pressure tank

Outlook: Saving Money while Saving the Planet

Emerging technologies now allow breweries of all sizes to install affordable carbon capture systems that trap self-generated CO2 for purging tanks and carbonating beer. There is even the potential to sell surplus gas. Importantly such systems wean beer makers off fickle and environmentally dubious international sources of commercial CO2 (see part 1). They take a significant and uncontrollable supply factor out of the cost-of-goods calculation and make business planning decisions much more reliable. As an intangible benefit, CO2-self-sufficiency can enhance a brewery’s brand image among retailers and consumers by telling the story of its carbon footprint reduction, its contribution to global sustainability, and the protection of the climate and the planet.