Denmark: Carlsberg to half amount of water needed for its Fredericia brewery

Beer giant Carlsberg is poised to half the amount of water needed to run its brewery in Fredericia, Denmark, with the unveiling of plans for a ground-breaking water recycling plant at the site last week, BusinessGreen reported on September 30.

The Frederica brewery is set to be home to Carlsberg's first water recycling system, which will reduce average water consumption at the site from 2.9 hectolitres (hl) of water per hl of beer to 1.4 hl of water per hl of beer.

Carlsberg says the system will make it the first brewery to "virtually eliminate water waste", future-proofing the site as part of the firm's Together Towards ZERO sustainability strategy.

The upgrade is also expected to cut energy consumption by 10 per cent by reusing hot water and generating biogas.

The company said it expects the water recycling plant to be in test production by the end of 2020, and fully operational by early 2021.

"This is a big investment for us, but also a necessary next step on our journey towards ZERO water waste across all our breweries," said Philip Hodges, EVP of integrated supply chains at Carlsberg Group. "By recycling 90 per cent of all process water, the Fredericia brewery will halve its current average water consumption for brewing beer, taking it below our 2030 target."

Fredericia is acting as a test bed for the water recycling technology, and Carlsberg suggested that if everything goes to plan, it could start rolling out the technology to its breweries more widely.

30 September, 2019