Economic and environmental performance of instantaneous water heating system for craft beer production

While microbrewery has become very popular, energy efficiency is a great challenge to microbrewers which causes low profitability margins and poor environmental performance. With high heating rate, instantaneous water system (IWHS) potential alternative steam boiler for beer brewing. This study developed an integrated techno-economic analysis (TEA) life cycle assessment (LCA) to, the first time, evaluate economic consequences of IWHS implementation in microbrewery. Results showed that labor, packaging raw materials were major variable costs craft beer. The net present value internal rate return calculated indicated investment was not profitable with its current productivity. Raw material production processing hotspots Due reduced gas use mashing cleaning, decreased global warming by approximately 22.4%. Besides justifying investment, enlarging scale can reduce footprint provided holistic tool clear indicators feasibility hot supply systems more sustainable production.