Breweries face ongoing challenges with CO₂ cost and supply

CO₂ shortages have hit breweries hard in recent years. It’s used throughout production so interrupted supplies can often cause output issues and may push prices up.

The energy crisis has made the situation worse. The rising cost of gas recently prompted CF Industries to halt ammonia production at their Billingham plant, meaning that the production of CO₂ at the plant will also cease. Where CO₂ is available, brewers are seeing huge price increases.

Rising costs at Wells & Co

Wells & Co, a leading craft brewer, produces 25,000 hectolitres of beer at its Bedfordshire plant, using 500 kg of CO₂ each day. While their CO2 costs were contracted, the contractual price is linked to supply and if CO₂ becomes hard to get hold of, the cost rises. Wells & Co didn’t experience production downtime because of CO₂ shortages, but this was only because they were able to buy gas in bulk.

James Hunter, Lead Brewer at Wells & Co says: “We generally buy in enough CO₂ at a time to cover twice our monthly production, but that’s something smaller breweries simply can’t do. Supply shortages are a real problem for many brewers.”

Time to find an alternative

Lowering costs and reducing reliance on CO2 were key business objectives. Nitrogen can replace CO2 in some processes and with Parker’s NITROSource, it can be generated on demand at a fraction of the cost of buying in gas. While the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) produced must be considered, any potential degradation of product quality is assessed in the initial scoping exercise.

“It was straightforward.” The scoping and sizing exercise calculated existing gas usage, taking into account the link between peak demands, purity and buffer capacity. “If you get your calculations right, the installation should be straightforward,” says James. “It’s literally plug and play for the unit, then you just have the electrical supply and peripherals like the pipework to manage.”

Business benefits:

• The brewery’s use of CO₂ has reduced by 50 tonnes per year. NITROSource generates 22 m3 of nitrogen per hour, and the equivalent of around 500 kg of CO₂ in 12 hours.

• Converting to NITROSource has reduced costs by over 70%. Wells & Co now uses nitrogen to transfer the conditioned beer after fermentation and control the top pressure in the buffer tanks and the finished tanks. The first two purging processes are driven by nitrogen, while CO₂ is still used in the third round.

• Carbon emissions have reduced by 50 tonnes per year. Installing NITROSource has been the single biggest factor in reducing the site’s carbon emissions.

“The capital investment doesn’t just include the unit – we also have to consider energy consumption, ancillary equipment and maintenance. That said, we’ll see a return on our investment within 2 ½ years and it’s made us more cost-competitive. The contribution to our environmental objectives has more than exceeded our expectations.”