Beer Labels

Solar Hot Water in the Beer Industry

The process of brewing and the use of renewable energies to reduce production costs is of interest to many breweries in America.

What is Brewing?
Beer, like other similar beverages is produced from cereals, especially barley, which undergoes a fermentation process. The raw materials involved in the process are water, hops and barley, sometimes mixed with corn or rice, etc..

Approximately 80% of beer is water and malted barley. This mixture is mixed with hot water until it begins to germinate, it starts at about 113 F and gradually rises until the desired temperature is reached. The brewery manufacturing process also  uses a lot of steam, which when combined with an efficient solar hot water system could be used to reduce energy costs. Solar concentrators can be used to heat the water to 200 F, and an alternative system can be used to heat the water further to produce steam. A remarkable solar hot water system can heat 350 gallons of water from 113 F to 200 F in 5 hours. By using a solar hot water system to pre-warm the water, the conventional natural gas or oil boiler will burn less fossil fuel and will reduce expenses.

The sun is a tremendous power house of energy that we can use to reduce energy consumption and the amount of green house gasses.
If we understand that only one of the leading brewers produced 1,872 million liters of beer per year, we get an idea of the vast amount of energy used globally by all these companies together to develop their product. Only in the United States there are over 1,400 breweries.

Imagine the marketing image for a brewer that showcases on its beer label that it uses solar hot water to produce its beer. Many younger consumers are environmentally conscious and they are very keen to notice if a brand is doing its part to reduce energy usage.

To provide solar hot water at high volumes at a constant temperature can only be provided by highly efficient devices such as solar concentrators.  This system is also called Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) . The shape of this system is a parabolic disc that focuses sunlight that is reflected by its mirror finish onto a focal point that is 10 inches x 10 inches. The focus of the suns rays on this small area is equivalent to 350 suns. This high level of sunlight concentration allows the solar concentrator to provide higher amounts of thermal heat, than traditional flat panels and evacuated tubes.

In addition, since the solar concentrator can track the sun, it can provide specific water temperatures that are desired for various applications. For example, 1 SolarBeam can heat water up to 113 F, another system can provide heating up to 200 F. Once the desired water temperature is reached, the SolarBeam can move away from the sun and will stop raising the water temperature. This type of system gives greater control to the user and allows it to interface to process heating systems that need specific water temperatures. This is an advantage over flat panels or evacuated tubes that cannot guarantee this type of control or the water temperature. Also, once the water temperature has been exceeded, they cannot stop collecting energy, which makes them inefficient.

The solar hot water system by SolarTron Energy Systems can be used in two ways. One way is by connecting the solar hot water system directly to the hot water tank and heat it gradually to the desired temperature. The other option is to provide instantaneous water at the desired temperature by using more SolarBeams which will each deliver 44,340 BTU’s of energy per hour.

There are many options for reducing energy usage for breweries and the simplest way is by using the suns energy to heat water. Ancient people have been using the sun for centuries to provide free hot water, and we can do the same by employing solar hot water systems in industries like breweries.

The great thing about solar hot water systems is that they can provide more energy than photovoltaic systems. For example, a Solar Beam hot water system can provide 13kW of thermal energy per hour. In the summer of 2011, a photovoltaic module will be available that can be added to existing Solar Beams.

However, this module will only create 4kW of electricity, that is 3 times less power, and the cost is about 30% more. So although solar electricity has a lot of hype, solar hot water is a more economical option for companies like breweries that already heat a lot of water.

 

About the Author

 

SolarBeam Concentrator by SolarTron Energy Systems is one of the few companies hat can provide solar combi-systems which include solar hot water heating Solar heating and solar air conditioning. The future of the EU and for solar thermal systems is being shaped by companies like these.

 

 

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