Determinação do consumo energético de microcervejarias

Abstract

The energy efficiency of industrial processes is directly specialized in manufacturing costs, highlighting the relevance of their evaluation and optimization. In microbreweries, due to the use of energy for heating and cooling, an economic model uses the description of thermal costs of all production steps: mashing, filtering, boiling, cooling, fermentation, maturation and pasteurization. Thus, the main grain is to describe an analytical solution, corresponding to conductive and convective heat exchanges, in a microbrewery to characterize the energy expenditure for beer production. Heat exchange equations available in literature were used, such as variations and characteristics of each material or input, adapting to the reality of microbreweries. All seven steps of the brewing process were modeled for a final beer production volume of 10 hL. The highest energy demand was reached, with 68,335.08 Wh consumed, possibly due to greater temperature variation throughout the process; followed by mashing and pasteurization, with 60,688.78 and 44,210.09 Wh selected, respectively. The thermal losses were 1,213.67; 1,106.56; 3,548.05; 102,422.22; 2,617.74; 45,293.40 and 1,157.85 Wh for mashing, filtration, boiling, cooling, fermentation, maturation and pasteurization, respectively. A proposed modeling for the quantification of the consumption and energy parcels along the brewing process allows identify places where a possible optimization is needed, since the equipment may be operating with energy expenditure.