Melbourne’s oldest independent brewer, 3 Ravens, has made energy upgrades to its Thornbury brewing facility to boost production by up to four times the current levels without increasing its energy consumption.
The upgrade includes the installation of 74 kW of solar panels and a CO2 chiller heat pump that can capture and use waste heat and cooling from the brewing process to supply other heating and cooling needs in the brewing process and wider facility.
The new system is managed by Fermecraft Industry 4.0 technology, which automates processes to maximise energy efficiency.
3 Ravens’ efforts to expand production using best-practice technologies and holistic integration of processes follow a series of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies conducted by the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) and funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) through its Advancing Renewables Program.
“Brewing beer is extremely energy intensive, using a lot of energy for cooling and heating processes. Previously at 3 Ravens (and at most other breweries) this heating and cooling was done by separate machines with unused heating and cooling from the processes being wasted – or lowering the comfort in the brewing space,” said Jon Fettes, Director at Regenerate Engineering, the energy consultancy engaged by 3 Ravens.
The new system in the project is designed to simultaneously create heating and cooling at useful temperatures for various parts of the brewing process from a single refrigerant cycle.
“This project is really exciting because it demonstrates the impact heat pump technologies can have right here, right now on emissions and energy costs in manufacturing, particularly in the food and beverage sector,” said A2EP CEO Jarrod Leak.
A2EP is set to visit a number of commercial heat pump installations around Melbourne on 1 August, including 3 Ravens. For more information and to book, visit https://events.humanitix.com/a2ep-victorian-heat-pump-site-tours.
