Ask The Brewmasters

Hello Forumites, 

I came across this item, and we are looking into the feasibility of this. The theory sounds great, reducing our vaporization electrical use to 0 kWh, but I have never heard of this tech, never seen it in a brewery. Does anyone out there have any familiarity with this? Product info here. 

We could get some incentives on this project, both grants and utility rebates, which makes it even more attractive.  

Cheers,

Travis
------------------------------
Travis Hixon
Director of Continuous Improvement/Operations
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago IL
travis.hixon@halfacrebeer.com
------------------------------

I've been looking into this myself.  Pentair sells one and includes them standard with their CO2 recapture systems to offset the massive energy required to convert the CO2 into liquid.  From the research I've done it looks like a no brainer if your Bulk CO2 is in close proximity to your glycol chiller.  If not, the process piping can be prohibitively expensive to pull off.  Essentially your glycol return piping gets rerouted to a shell and tube heat exchanger at your bulk CO2 outlet to vaporize the liquid CO2.  The glycol is your warming medium for the heat exchanger and then returns to glycol reservoir about 6 degrees cooler than it would otherwise.

It does almost seem too good to be true so I'd also be interested in hearing some first hand accounts from people that have used them.  There is a testimonial from Founders Brewing in Pentairs literature on their unit that claims something like a 6 month ROI from Alec Mull when he was working there.

Hello Forumites, 

I came across this item, and we are looking into the feasibility of this. The theory sounds great, reducing our vaporization electrical use to 0 kWh, but I have never heard of this tech, never seen it in a brewery. Does anyone out there have any familiarity with this? Product info here. 

We could get some incentives on this project, both grants and utility rebates, which makes it even more attractive.  

Cheers,

Travis
------------------------------
Travis Hixon
Director of Continuous Improvement/Operations
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago IL
travis.hixon@halfacrebeer.com
------------------------------

Thanks, Jason. Yes, this is a Pentair unit. And our bulk tank and chiller are about 5' apart max. This thing could slide right in between or at one end with a tiny footprint. Could you send a link to Alec's testimonial? I haven't seen that. He may have been on a larger (different) model, although the theory is the same, the one on Pentair's main website is a different design than the one in the link above (Pentair/Union). The main difference I see is the former (ReVap) looks like it uses plate and frame HEXs while the latter utilizes a tube and shell design. 

I've been looking into this myself.  Pentair sells one and includes them standard with their CO2 recapture systems to offset the massive energy required to convert the CO2 into liquid.  From the research I've done it looks like a no brainer if your Bulk CO2 is in close proximity to your glycol chiller.  If not, the process piping can be prohibitively expensive to pull off.  Essentially your glycol return piping gets rerouted to a shell and tube heat exchanger at your bulk CO2 outlet to vaporize the liquid CO2.  The glycol is your warming medium for the heat exchanger and then returns to glycol reservoir about 6 degrees cooler than it would otherwise.

It does almost seem too good to be true so I'd also be interested in hearing some first hand accounts from people that have used them.  There is a testimonial from Founders Brewing in Pentairs literature on their unit that claims something like a 6 month ROI from Alec Mull when he was working there.

Hello Forumites, 

I came across this item, and we are looking into the feasibility of this. The theory sounds great, reducing our vaporization electrical use to 0 kWh, but I have never heard of this tech, never seen it in a brewery. Does anyone out there have any familiarity with this? Product info here. 

We could get some incentives on this project, both grants and utility rebates, which makes it even more attractive.  

Cheers,

Travis
------------------------------
Travis Hixon
Director of Continuous Improvement/Operations
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago IL
travis.hixon@halfacrebeer.com
------------------------------