Simulation of Energy and Media Demand of Batch-Oriented Production Systems in the Beverage Industry

Abstract

The global brewing industry is facing enormous environmental challenges and is urgently required to produce sustainably and efficiently. The rising costs of energy and electricity are forcing small and medium-sized breweries in particular, which are confronted with barriers such as lack of capital and know-how, to make substantial changes. This article presents an extended approach to prognose the energy and media demand for batch-oriented production of a brewery. Therefore, based on a modeling editor as well as a standardized data structure and an approach to determine the simulation-relevant parameters, a solution for fast and easy model generation was developed. Extensive measurement recordings within a brewhouse were performed to create a comprehensive model with recipe-specific parameters and detailed production plans. A simulation model can be generated automatically from a configuration file in a simulation environment that has been extended to include the mapping of batch-oriented operation. A validation is presented and a maximum deviation of the electrical and thermal energy demand of 1–2% is achieved. In combination with a preliminary work, the holistic simulation of the complex combined production of batch-oriented and discrete operation within the brewery is presented and allows comprehensive analysis as well as optimization towards sustainable production.

Environmental Priorities, Drivers and Barriers in the Craft Beer Sector: Insights from Massachusetts Breweries

“…While in theory, efficiency improvements provide strong incentives for all brewers to switch to more environmentally sustainable practices, craft breweries face several barriers to implementing such strategies. The upfront costs of implementing these measures are a hindrance to small breweries with limited resources (both capital and human) [10,[75][76][77]. More broadly, the lack of capital has been identified as a major barrier to implementing green business practices by SMEs [5].…”

“…Lack of awareness and information about best practices and available state and federal incentives for reducing environmental impacts is a common barrier for craft breweries in any country [75,76]. Brewers guilds, the national Brewers Association, and state programs have been working to address this challenge by providing up-to-date information, technical assistance, and resources such as examples of best practices [15,[82][83][84].…”

Environmental Repercussions of Craft Beer Production in Northeast Brazil

“…Beer production is energy-intensive, both thermally and electrically, as its several manufacturing processes require high energy levels and long operational times [6,7]. Transportation throughout the supply chain also contributes to significant environmental impacts (as verified by [8], for wine).…”

Energy Flexibility Potential in the Brewery Sector: A Multi-agent Based Simulation of 239 Danish Breweries

“…A single brewery could save approximately 9 % on its energy cost through electricity price optimization of the cooling supply [14]. The brewery facilities can be energy flexible and reduce the peak load energy consumption by 32 % [15]. However, it is difficult to utilize the energy flexibility by only focusing on a single facility because altering the operation of a single facility may propagate to the whole process flow [9].…”