Re-thinking beer at Carlsberg
Over the past 10 years, Carlsberg has been closely involved in developing and testing hydraulic valve actuation technology, and since 2016 Carlsberg has implemented this technology at the company’s brewery in Fredericia, Denmark.
The project first started as an energy-reducing initiative. Powered by water hydraulics, the patented valve actuation technology reduces electrical power consumption by more than 99%. Over time, the project evolved from being a sustainable alternative to conventional pneumatic valve actuation into an enabler for high-precision inline mixing, high-gravity brewing (HGB) and late product differentiation.
“Our production becomes easier and cheaper. We achieve better utilization of the raw materials as well as a much more flexible production with increased process reliability. It is crucial for Carlsberg to be better and more competitive than our competitors. It opens so many opportunities and creates such a good economy that it would be wrong to do otherwise.”
Peter Rasmussen
Senior Process Manager, at Carlsberg Supply Company Denmark
Hydraulic valves being installed at Carlsberg, Denmark.
“The tests of the HYDRACT process valve have exceeded our expectations. The precision and repeatability achieved with hydraulic valve technology as an alternative to compressed air enable an entirely new approach to effective and sustainable beer production. It fundamentally changes the way we can produce beer in the future.”
Anders Kokholm
Brewing and Quality Director at Carlsberg Supply Company Denmark
This success led to further expansion of the project. When the next phase was implemented, Carlsberg had more than 600 hydraulically actuated valves installed and operating in Fredericia, fundamentally changing the way the brewery produces beer. More than 300 of these valves are double-seat mixproof control valves.
Because water is incompressible, hydraulic valve actuation provides an unprecedented level of precision and control compared to pneumatic systems. The technology enables customers to rethink production methods and processes due to the stability and precision achieved through hydraulic actuation.
Watch the video Carlsberg on using Hydract
The new way of mixing beer at Carlsberg, called Smart-Mix, means that Carlsberg can focus on brewing HGB and inline mixing of these base products, creating a completely new production setup. Beer can be blended on demand for Just-in-Time filling.
In other words, Carlsberg can significantly reduce the number of storage tanks and beer variants that need to be held in stock. Basic products can be mixed in many different combinations on the way to bottling, creating a much shorter production lead time.
This allows the brewery to adapt far more quickly to seasonal fluctuations and changing market demands while significantly reducing inventory carrying costs.
The company quickly realized the benefits of changing its production setup.
“The process is very unique, and you cannot find a valve controlled like this one in the market today.”
Anders Kokholm
Brewing and Quality Director at Carlsberg Supply Company Denmark
The inline mixing project not only delivers substantial energy savings for valve operation, but also generates less waste, consumes less water and reduces chemical consumption and cleaning costs by up to 30%.
Because Carlsberg can brew larger batches of the same HGB products, the number of bright beer batches produced each year is reduced. This results in less cleaning and higher utilization of bright beer tanks (BBTs).
Hydraulic valve matrix at Carlsberg, Denmark.
The inline mixing concept significantly increases the capacity of the BBT bottleneck in the brewery while lowering the unit cost of beer production. The system is fully automated using advanced valve, measurement and software technologies, controlling critical parameters such as alcohol content, CO₂ and colour in real time.
This enables final products to be produced consistently within specification while maximizing line utilization across all production volumes. At the same time, the need for additional mixing tanks and mixing systems is eliminated.
"If you want to list all the benefits of using Hydract's valves, then it will be a very long list. The fact that it can stay closed and regulate precisely gives us at Carlsberg the process advantage that we can make a very late product differentiation. We can cut down on our inventories to achieve higher efficiency at the bottling plant and we can produce On-Demand and Just-In-Time while reducing our waste. It will pay off – big time!"
Anders Kokholm
Brewing and Quality Director at Carlsberg Supply Company Denmark
Today part of the GEA portfolio
The hydraulic valve actuation technology demonstrated at Carlsberg has proven its ability to reduce energy consumption, improve process precision and enable innovative production concepts such as inline mixing and late product differentiation.
Following GEA’s acquisition of Hydract, this proven technology is now available as GEA Hydract® Actuation Technology and is being integrated into the GEA VARIVENT® portfolio, making its benefits available to a broader range of hygienic processing applications.
