Water, barley malt, hops - and steel? Brewing beer with furnace heat
A new agreement brings together E.ON, thyssenkrupp Steel and König Brauerei to capture waste heat from steel production and repurposing it to brew a beer with 75% lower carbon emissions.
Cold rolled steel and ice cold beer. Not a common double act, but we’ve started work with Germany's largest steelmaker and a brewery dating back to 1858 on a pioneering energy project that links both production lines and generates a 75% reduction in carbon savings.
Thyssenkrupp Steel is Germany’s largest steelmaker and has a plant in the city of Duisberg, western Germany. Just a few hundred metres away is the König Brauerei which has been in operation for more than 150 years and which today sees around 55,000 bottles pass through its filling line every hour – that's 1,32 million bottles per day.
These long-established companies on the Rhine and Ruhr have now begun a pioneering sustainable energy project with E.ON that captures industrial waste heat from the steel production process, transfers it through a new steam pipeline built and operated by E.ON, and then into the König brewery’s existing steam network where it supplies energy for the brewery's processes.
Because of this new heat capture process, the brewery is reducing annual CO2 emissions by up to three quarters, meaning all beer production processes that require heat energy are now emission-free (this has been confirmed by an independent report from the University of Duisburg Essen).
As the energy partner, E.ON built the entire pipeline infrastructure and the steam heat exchanger and will also be responsible for energy management in the future.
This partnership demonstrates how businesses can come together to find innovative solutions that benefit both the environment and the community. By sharing energy – and reducing the need for everyone to generate their own – resources are conserved and costs are saved.
Climate protection in good company
“The entire project is proof of how companies can effectively promote local climate protection in good neighbourhoods. This innovative joint project not only helps the climate. The three companies involved also benefit.”
Wolfgang Wiese, Head of Power Plants and Energy Control at thyssenkrupp Steel
“Thanks to this innovative partnership, König-Brauerei is less dependent on fossil fuels and is becoming one of the most sustainable breweries in Germany.”
Jan Niewodniczanski, Managing Director Technology and Environment, Bitburger Brewery Group
