A pioneering heat pump project at a Sussex brewery is helping to radically reduce energy use and costs, promising to slash bills for wort boiling by more than 65%.
Last year, family-owned Hepworth Brewery became the first in the UK to trial a new type of heat pump, developed by Surbiton start-up Futraheat, to deliver low-carbon heat to the brewing process.
Heat, delivered through high temperature steam, is a vital component of brewing — and many other industrial processes — and is usually delivered by boilers running on gas or fuel oil.
Unlike most heat pumps, which deliver hot water up to around 80°C, the Futraheat Greensteam 300kW heat pump can produce steam up to 130°C.
At Hepworth, the new system recovers waste heat at 100°C, previously vented to atmosphere, and upgrades it to process steam between 120°C and 130°C. This steam is then resupplied to the brewing kettle, displacing the need for the fossil-fuel derived heat.
Now, with months of operations under its belt, the heat pump has shown its potential to radically reduce the brewer’s reliance on a CO2-emitting oil boiler and allow it to switch much of its heat requirement for wort boiling to the electrically- powered heat pump.
Figures published by The Carbon Trust and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero — which part-funded the initiative — show the project has demonstrated:
- an 85.8% energy saving for the wort boiling process in the kettle, compared to the existing fuel-oil boiler;
- a 91.2% reduction in CO2 equivalent;
- a 65.3% energy cost reduction; and
- consistent steam output at 125°C, matching brewing specifications, with a high coefficient of performance.
The project enabled the Greensteam heat pump to move from technology readiness level TRL 5 to TRL 9, with more than 70 hours of operation at kettle boiling conditions, equivalent to 35 brews and around 500,000 pints of beer production.
Futraheat is now looking with the brewery at how Greensteam 330 heat pump could be integrated site-wide to maximise the offset of the fossil fuel generated heat used at the brewery.
The project is one of a number of initiatives being adopted by the brewer as part of its commitment to sustainability. Other measures include solar panels, a reed bed, and a waste system which converts organic matter in wastewater into biomethane.
“The project has shown that, through offsetting the need for boiler steam, the efficiency of the heat pump technology can deliver the expected CO2 and cost savings over the long term,” said Hepworth Brewery chairman Andy Hepworth.
“The next stage will see Futraheat upgrade the heat pump’s compressor to a full production model, which will then be used more extensively on site and lead, hopefully, to a final, permanent Greensteam heat pump solution at Hepworth.”
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The key to the heat pump is a novel, patented turbo compressor, known as TurboClaw, which sits at the heart of the Greensteam system and which can boost temperatures by up to 60 degrees.
Futraheat chief executive Tom Taylor said: “Heat is a major component of a huge range of industrial processes, from pharmaceuticals to food and drink, and vast amounts of this is delivered by steam.
“Until recently, heat pumps have been both unaffordable and unable to deliver heat at the temperature that industry requires. This project demonstrates the technology can now be implemented within a brewery. We’re confident it can then be rolled out across a range of industries, in the UK and worldwide.”
The project has been delivered in partnership with Hepworth Brewery and the Department for Energy Strategy and Net Zero’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme, managed by the Carbon Trust.
Futraheat secured £2 million investment in 2023, from backers including the Clean Growth Fund, to develop, and now plan to deploy their next-generation machine, which will incorporate two TurboClaw compressors, to deliver heat up to 150 degrees.
