How innovative CCRO technology helped Carlsberg create probably the world’s most water-efficient brewery

While it is hardly surprising that it is impossible to produce beer without water, what may come as a shock is that most of the water used in the manufacturing process does not find itself as part of the final product. Instead, it is used for cleaning and other industrial processes.

In 2015, the Carlsberg Group, one of the world’s leading brewers, identified that it was consuming an average of 3.4 liters of water for every liter of beer produced at its global network of manufacturing sites. However, only around a third of that water went into the beer itself.

This high level of water consumption, combined with the fact that 17 Carlsberg breweries are located in areas of high-water risk, prompted the company to rethink its approach to water usage and launch a new initiative to tackle the issue.

DuPont Water Solutions’ innovative DesaliTec™ Closed Circuit Reverse Osmosis (CCRO) technology played a pivotal role in the bid to cut water consumption when it was deployed as part of an innovative wastewater reuse initiative at the flagship Carlsberg brewery in Fredericia, Denmark.

Reducing water consumption in a water-intensive industry

Pressure on our water resources is ever-increasing. Indeed, it is estimated that in less than five years, 1.8 billion people will be living with water scarcity and two-thirds of the global population will be living in water-stressed regions. This brings challenges to individuals and businesses alike.

Brewing is an industry typically associated with high water usage, particularly for cleaning. At the Carlsberg brewery in Fredericia, 65% of the 3.4 liters of water used to produce each liter of beer was classified as process water; it was used for the cleaning of production equipment, bottles, and cans, in addition to being used in boilers, cooling towers, and other processes.

The company wanted to take action to reduce its water consumption through water reuse, so it launched its ‘Zero Water Waste’ initiative in 2016. Conceived as part of the company’s ‘Together Towards Zero’ program (the brewer’s environmental strategy), the plan was to halve water usage at its breweries by 2030.

However, determined to make early progress toward this goal, there was also a target to achieve a 25% reduction in water use by 2022 and to explore reducing water consumption at breweries in water-scarce areas to below 2 liters per liter of beer.

Leveraging DuPont’s innovative DesaliTec™ CCRO technology

As part of the strategy to reduce water consumption, an initiative was set up that aimed to virtually eliminate wastewater from the brewing process at the Carlsberg brewery in Fredericia - a big challenge for the industry given the vast quantity of water used.

The project was led by the Belgian circular water specialists, Pantarein Water, with input from organizations including Dutch water treatment system designer Lenntech and water technology specialist DuPont.

The initiative involved the installation of a state-of-the-art Total Water Management (TWM) treatment facility in 2021. The TWM uses anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment processes combined with Membrane Bio Reactor (MBR) filtration to remove the majority of the pollutants from the waste process water. Further filtration is subsequently provided by the DuPont™ DesaliTec™ CCRO treatment plant which extracts the remaining salts dissolved in the water.

The permeate water is remineralized using calcium carbonate, increasing its pH (to reduce corrosion on pipework and other equipment) and ensuring that it meets drinking water standards. Finally, the water is subject to UV treatment and chlorine dioxide is added to prevent the growth of biofilm and to reduce bacterial risk.

CCRO technology was selected as it offers greater adaptability, efficiency, and reliability compared to conventional reverse osmosis processes. While continuing to make use of vessels containing membranes, the entire system is pressurized, causing the feedwater to recirculate through the membranes until the desired recovery level is achieved. This means that the purification process is automatically tuned to the composition of the incoming feedwater, allowing the system to achieve very high levels of recovery from feedwater of varying salinity without operator intervention.

Creating the world’s most water-efficient brewery

Through other initiatives, Carlsberg had managed to reduce the Fredericia brewery’s water consumption by 0.6 liters to 2.8 liters of water per liter of beer produced. However, the TWM has proven to be a game changer and since its introduction, just 1.4 liters of water per liter of beer is now required to produce each liter of beer, saving 560 million liters of water each year. 

The TWM can purify 2,000m3 of process water each day, making it available for reuse. It currently enables around 82 – 90 % of the process water used for sanitation and bottle cleaning to be recovered and reused for these purposes. The remaining material, consisting of sludge and wastewater concentrate, is sent to a public wastewater treatment plant.