Howdy Kelly!
Following along with Campbell, I'm curious what others have done here as well.
We've been diving into CO2 usage and mapping quite a bit this year, as we've been constantly in a Force Majeure since December, often cut to only 35-40% of our contracted allocation.
We did a fairly broad exercise earlier this year diving into some measurements, calculations and assumptions around CO2 usage.
- 60% of our known usage is going to Packaging
- 30% going toward Carbonation and De-aerated Water creation
- 7% to Dry-Hop operations
- 3% going toward Tank Purges
However, all of that known usage only accounts for about 50% of the CO2 that we purchased. So we can somewhat assume that we are losing about 50% of our CO2 to leaks throughout the plant, or some mis-guided assumptions around usage.
- Our plant-wide CO2 network is about 10 years old at this point, is largely located outside, and incorporates both plastic and stainless components.
- We wound up finding that some of our PRVs were detonating well below their setpoint, and were just leaking constantly.
Like Campbell suggested, we've been able to reduce Canning usage by about 20% as we've moved toward turning the Bubble Breaker off nearly entirely, and even reducing the usage of the Undercover Gasser. We also saw a bit of an inverse bell curve, where significantly reduced or significantly increased CO2 usage improved TPO results, but hanging out in the middle actually caused worse TPO levels.
I know you weren't asking for CO2 reduction suggestions, but just tossing out that most folks don't think about Microbiology as related to CO2 usage, but it can be a huge driver of reduced usage. We have yet to install any sort of pasteurization equipment, and are still able to follow the rules below:
- If you have clean processes, you can likely re-fill your Brite Tanks without cleaning several times.
- We typically Caustic clean our BBTs only about every 60-80 fills.
- For Filtered product, we will run Acid (Nitric/Phos) CIP + PAA Sani every 3-4 fills. We run this CIP cycle under pressure, so there is no venting of CO2 or purging after the CIP. We will check the O2 level in the headspace after CIP, and do some minimal purging if needed, but typically no purging is required
- For Centrifuge-Only product, we will do a quick DA rinse after each fill to prevent yeast/solids accumulation in the bottom, but then will still refill 3 times before Acid/Sani
- If you are moving beer to your Packaging cellar via pump, you can connect the Headspace of your Fermenter and Brite Tank together to conserve CO2.
- Rather than pushing with CO2 or using it to replenish the headspace in your Fermenter, if you use a clean hose to connect the headspaces together, you will not need to vent CO2 during the transfer process.
- If you have concerns with Micro, this is less likely a viable option
On the note of Nitrogen use, we're pushing ahead.
- Trials using Nitrogen gas for purge/flush at the can line showed it was 99% as effective as CO2 gas on a cubic foot basis (you can't directly compare kg to kg as Nitrogen is a less dense gas)
- Trials using Nitrogen as a push gas for Dry Hopping operations were completely successful. Only issue when using Dewars was getting enough of a flowrate
- Trials using Nitrogen for purging tanks showed it was as effective as CO2 if you are avoiding turbulent flow
- Nitrogen generation seems to be the most cost-effective option, as long as you size accordingly for peak flow
- Reports from others in the industry have stated similar. Purity is great until you start stressing the system
- Some N2 generation systems have the ability to supplement the pressure with a dedicated N2/CO2 tank. Basically if the N2 generator cannot keep up, rather than compromising on the quality of the N2 produced, it will open a valve to allow the system pressure differential to be made up from a dedicated purchased CO2/N2 tank
- CO2 recovery operations may require significantly more Electricity to run than would be assumed.
- For us, the cost of the electricity to run the system will almost equal the price we're currently paying for CO2, plus the ~$2m install cost
Please reach out for any additional questions, happy to share some data where I can. Hoping to have a N2 generator installed over the summer, will try to report back once we're up and running.
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Thanks!
Sam Thompson
Quality Manager & Innovation Coordinator
Lagunitas Brewing Company
sam.thompson@lagunitas.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-22-2023 13:13
From: Kelly White
Subject: CO2 usage tracking by application
Hi all,
In an effort to reduce our CO2 usage I would like to track how much we use by department/application (e.g. carbonations, tank purges, canning line, etc.) to see where we can be saving. I figured flow meters were a good place to start, but am not sure on type or where to place them in line. We currently have lines going through a pressure regulator on the wall, and that's it for flow control.
Does anyone use flow meters to track CO2 usage by application? What flow meters do you recommend? Where do you install them? Any advice on where to start is appreciated.
Thanks,
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Kelly White
Country Boy Brewing
Georgetown KY
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