Taking heat requirements into account, attention was paid to the temperature levels used in the heat supply system. Therefore new solutions for the adaption and optimisation of the relevant machinery and processes to make them compatible with the characteristics of solar thermal heat production were essential for the installation in the Göss Brewery.
For example, the mashing tun has been heated by steam running through a heat exchanger on the outside of the mashing tun. Now for the integration of the solar thermal heat, to keep the same process speed, new heat exchanger plates have been added on the inside of the mashing tun. The new heat exchanger allows a hybrid energy supply for the mashing tun where, besides the solar thermal energy, the energy from the district heating system, supplied by a wood chip fired combined heat and power plant, can also be used for the heating of the mash. Moreover, the new internal heat exchangers are fed only with hot water instead of steam, providing all the heat required for mashing (AEE INTEC , 2013).
Large collectors were installed with a total collector area of 1,500 m², supplying the mashing process with 480 MWh of energy per year at a temperature of 90°C (Mauthner et al., 2014). Six new heat exchanger plates were installed in the mashing tun to ensure the desired heating time, allowing lower media-heating temperatures and ensuring the same process and product conditions.
- AEE INTEC, 2013. Comments on preliminary drafts (Christoph Brunner personal Communication, October-December 2013).
- Mauthner F., Hubmann M., Brunner C., Fink C. 2014. Manufacture of malt and beer with low temperature solar process heat. Energy Procedia 48, 1188 – 1193.