A brewing customer came to Cargill for help in discovering and addressing brewing process inefficiencies that lead to cost savings and sustainability improvements

According to brewersassociation.org, 1,753 U.S. breweries operated for some or all of 2010, which is the highest number since the late 1800s. U.S. beer sales have been steady for the past few years but consumer choices have dramatically increased as local brew pubs and microbreweries continue to pop up.  Inevitably, with seemingly boundless consumer beer choices comes greater pressure on brewers to maintain market share and cost structures. One brewer found some surprising cost efficiencies in their operations thanks to Cargill’s Process Optimizers.

New growth for larger brewers is difficult in our current economic environment. The brewing industry is currently undergoing a period of consolidation as firms look to gain leverage with business partners at a time when margins are being squeezed.  The hope is that consolidation yields significant cost synergies.

A successful international brewer recently came to Cargill for help with uncovering process optimization, potential cost savings and sustainability improvements in their production facilities.  Cargill has a long term partnership with this customer to supply malt and liquid adjuncts. When beverage producers approach Cargill, they are typically looking for ingredient and formulation expertise. Since the brewer ‘s product has been selling very well, providing them with double digit growth, they were focused exclusively on uncovering and repairing process inefficiencies.

To address the breadth of production issues faced by brewers, Cargill has built a set of steady state and dynamic computer models and tools. These models can test the economic and environmental cost of operating a brewery, including overall heating and cooling requirements, water and raw material use, and losses associated with wet solids, CO₂ handling and fermentation. This standardized set of modeling tools can also be licensed by brewers to perform the analysis themselves.  

Cargill’s team worked to apply Cargill Process Optimizer’s modeling tools at one of the brewer’s larger facilities.  Right away, the steady state model identified several heat integration opportunities – recovering energy from streams that were either cooled with utilities or rejected as waste.

The model also allowed the team to investigate some of the economic and sustainability trade-offs associated with production.  For example, in rinsing the mash – more water use improves yield, but increases energy requirements and puts greater stress on water resources.

Dynamic models of areas like the pasteurizer or the brew house allowed the team to understand the impact of batches on the process – the spikes in boiler load associated with boiling a kettle, for example, or starting up the pasteurizer.  This understanding was translated into planning and communication tools to allow the boiler house and production floor to balance loads, reducing standby boiler operating costs and reducing the likelihood of steam outages. 

The benefits of these optimization changes have not been fully realized yet as the improvements have just been implemented at the customer’s facilities. But, this brewer is confident that changes will lead to dramatic bottom line improvements.

The number of engineering challenges that brewers face can be improved through Cargill’s process optimization tools. Cargill provides unmatched experience in reducing cost, increasing capacity and improving yield in brewing operations.