Brewery techniques - Technologies associated with clarification

The brewing industry has a long tradition, but is a dynamic sector open to new technologies and scientific innovations.

The brewing process, based on solid/liquid extraction, fermentation and separation operations, is a major consumer of water and a major producer of effluent and solid waste to produce an alcoholic beverage, beer. The main ingredients are malted cereals and raw grains, hops, water and yeast. Beer production passes, alternately, from three chemical and biochemical reactions to three solid/liquid separation operations.

Brewers insist that the technologies they use are the best in terms of product quality, cost and environmental impact. As a result, energy consumption, water use and effluent generation represent real economic opportunities for improving existing processes.

Increased efficiency and tighter environmental restrictions are the new specifications for alternative technologies, for which sustainability and economy are the watchwords.

Our objectives here are to define the main inputs and outputs of the brewing process, as well as the issues involved in clarifying keg beer. The latter is described in detail:

• from a physico-chemical point of view, by identifying the major compounds to be eliminated;

• from a technological point of view, with an inventory of filtration techniques (excluding membrane processes) and additives.