District heating supply for the brewery in Murau

CONVERSION OF ENERGY SUPPLY OF THE BREWERY MURAU BY THE CONNECTION TO THE DISTRICT HEATING POWER OF THE PUBLIC UTILITY SERVICES MURAU.

After the construction of the wood chips heating system in Murau, the was an opportunity for the 1st Obermurtaler Brauereigenossenschaft to connect to the existing district heating network work of Murau and completely convert the energy supply of the brewery to renew energy. For this reason, it was necessary for the brewery to convert most of their thermal processes to hot water supply.

In the brewery Murauer annually approximately 300,000 hectoliters of beer are produced and the heat, supplied by steam, has been managed by an oil boiler. In the future (since May 2014) the required thermal energy is provided via district heating from wood chips from the Murauer Forstbetriebe. Since November 2011 the LKH Stolzalpe is already connected via an 11km long district heating line which overcomes a height difference of about 450 m. In the next step the Murauer brewery was integrated into the supply network.

Since the main thermal energy supply is ensured via the district heating, a buffer of about 110 m³ was installed at the brewery for load balancing. This ensures that during high production days there is no shortage of supply in the brewery and a smooth beer production is ensured.

The supply of the brewery was divided into two different supply grids. The supply grid for the brewhouse is operated at a temperature above 115°C and the supply grid for the beer bottling is operated at 95°C. The supply temperatures were adjusted to the process temperatures that a very low return temperature is reached and the optimum integration in the district heating network is guaranteed.

Overall, the change from steam supply to hot water supply of the brewery Murauer leads to energy savings of 32% or 2.592 MWh per year, which is reached in the brewhouse, the bottling hall and through the energy supply change itself.

By increasing the efficiency in the supply network and utilization of renewable resources (biogas) annually 730 tons ^[1] of CO2equ can be saved.

Conversion of energy supply

In addition, 480,000 liters of fuel oil per year are saved by changing the supply of steam (fuel oil) to hot water (biomass by district heating), which corresponds to 1,553 tons ^[2] CO2equ.

[1] Heizöl leicht: 282 t CO2,eq/GWh aus UMWELTBUNDESAMT (2011): Anderl, M.; Freudenschuß, A.; Friedrich, A.; Göttlicher, S.; Köther, T.; Kriech, M.; Kuschel, V.; Lampert, C.; Pazdernik, K.; Poupa, S.; Purz-ner, M.; Stranner, G.; Schwaiger, E.; Seuss, K.; Weiss, P.; Wieser, M.; Zechmeis-ter, A.; Zethner, G.: Austria’s National Inventory Report 2011. Reports, Bd. REP-0308. Umweltbundesamt, Wien.

[2] Heizöl leicht: 282 t CO2,eq/GWh aus UMWELTBUNDESAMT (2011): Anderl, M.; Freudenschuß, A.; Friedrich, A.; Göttlicher, S.; Köther, T.; Kriech, M.; Kuschel, V.; Lampert, C.; Pazdernik, K.; Poupa, S.; Purz-ner, M.; Stranner, G.; Schwaiger, E.; Seuss, K.; Weiss, P.; Wieser, M.; Zechmeis-ter, A.; Zethner, G.: Austria’s National Inventory Report 2011. Reports, Bd. REP-0308. Umweltbundesamt, Wien.

Projektkonsortium und Funktion im Konsortium

AEE INTEC: Erstellung eines Konzeptes zur Umstellung der Dampfversorgung. Ausarbeitung der Energieversorgung, der Prozessumstellung (von Dampf auf Heißwasser) und der Energieeinsparungen