CO2 recovery – An overview of the current state of technology

Abstract

Due to economical constraints and a globally increasing environmental awareness the brewing industry time and time again has to ask itself the question: “How could the required quality be sustainably produced and/or even improved with reduced use of resources?” CO₂ is a main raw material in the brewing process and is, therefore, no exception. Concrete objectives have long since been defined: the first objective is to reduce the number of big CO₂ consumers in a brewery. The second objective is to optimize the CO₂ recovery, resulting in a higher CO₂ recovery yield. The growth markets – soft drinks and non-alcoholic beer – are only two examples. How squaring the circle of ecology, economy and quality could succeed will be explained in this article. Only technical solutions that are ready for series production and for retrofitting existing CO₂ systems are shown.