How De Leite reduces its water consumption by at least 25%
THE CLIENT
Brewing beer is a very water-intensive process. De Leite brewery wants to be a frontrunner in sustainable water management in its production process. BOSAQ will perform a thorough water audit to measure, analyze and visualize the water cycle at De Leite. The goal of this project is to reduce the water consumption by at least 25% and progress towards a water-beer ratio of 4 liters water per liter beer.
INTRODUCTION
Water is an essential resource to brew beer, as it is used as an ingredient for beer, to clean installations or bottles and to cool beer. De Leite brewery contacted BOSAQ to perform a water audit and to devise a sustainable water management policy. Not only does De Leite want to reduce its water consumption during the beer brewing process, but it also wants the water cycle to be future-proof to allow for sustainable growth of production.
The challenge
Various steps in the brewing process consume water, not only as an ingredient but also for cleaning and rinsing.
De Leite brewery did not have a clear view of the water use and its efficiency.
The Solution
BOSAQ performed a detailed water audit, in which our experts measure and analyze the water use throughout the entire production process.
This audit revealed that the water-beer ratio varied between brewing batches (Figure 1). Bigger batches of beer showed a lower water-beer ratio, which indicates that there was a big share of fixed water use linked to cleaning.
Figure 1: Liters of water used per liter of beer produced in several batches of beer.
It was also found that inefficient use of cooling water amounted to a substantial share of the total water use.
BOSAQ proposed several implementations to reduce water use at De Leite.
Short term actions encompassed process-based implementations in the production, cleaning and cooling processes as well as household-based interventions in sinks and toilets.
On the long term, BOSAQ provided advice on improving the monitoring of water use, by placing the right water meters at critical points in the production process.
Also, the cooling installation could be optimized and rainwater use was revealed to be a hidden source of water savings.
In the end, the proposed actions were digested in an implementation plan to unburden the client.
Conclusion
The water audit and the recommended actions should ensure significant water savings of at least 25%, to move towards a water-beer ratio of 4 liters water used per liter beer produced.
"
I believe water, being a precious resource, has to be handled with a great amount of care. As an artisan brewery, we were looking for tailor-made solutions for our water management. BOSAQ, therefore, came as a godsend, their approach scaled to the size of our company and was very concrete, meaningful and manageable.
- Luc Vermeersch
Brouwerij De Leite
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