Skol to a Sustainable Beer

Date: 11.10.21

When you’re enjoying a glass of beer, do you ever consider how the beverage is made and whether the process is environmentally friendly? For Kim Dalum, brewing is a passion, and his startup company focuses on reducing the carbon emissions in craft breweries. Trelleborg Sealing Solutions contributed to make his dream of sustainable craft brewing a reality. – By Meghan Cloud Braunger

IN SHORT

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions collaborated with Dalum Beverage Equipment in the development of a CO₂ compressor.
The compressor is one part of a CO₂ recovery plant, enabling craft breweries to recycle CO₂emitted during fermentation.
Turcon® MF6 is the optimum material in the compressor's challenging operating environment

Craft breweries are relatively small, independently owned, employ traditional brewing methods, and emphasize flavor and quality. Alongside making great beer, it’s about much more: creativity, innovation, passion and stepping outside the box. Brewers are fun to work with, motivated and passionate about what they do.

The craft brewing industry also has a lot of potential. The sector is continuously growing, both in value and in volume, globally at over 14% annually. Alongside offering exciting new flavors and tastes, breweries are expanding their distribution networks locally and internationally. Consumers are increasingly preferring craft over mainstream beers because they offer new styles and flavors, and use premium quality ingredients, which are often locally sourced.

Innovation in an exciting segment

“The craft segment is where all the growth is; it's exciting and so much is happening there. That is the main reason why I decided to focus on craft beer when I started my company. I'm now trying to help craft brewers save money and become more environmentally friendly by reducing emissions,” says Kim Dalum, the founder and CEO of Dalum Beverage Equipment.

As we look to the future, identifying and developing ways to be more sustainable is becoming increasingly important. The craft brewing industry is fully invested in this, whether by using organic, local ingredients, or making the brewing process more environmentally friendly.

“This is where I was determined to help make an impact,” Kim explains. “After spending much of my professional life developing equipment for larger breweries, I founded Dalum Beverage Equipment to give craft and microbreweries the same innovations, enabling them to be more sustainable. We work closely with the brewers, bringing our engineering expertise and knowhow to co-develop equipment that will make a difference in the brewing process.”

Sustainability & Beer Brewing

Malted barley or other grains are used to produce beer. During the brewing process, the sugar in these grains ferments, which produces alcohol and CO₂.

The CO₂ produced at this stage is emitted from the beer. The ability to capture and recycle this gas has numerous benefits:

Improves the workplace environment - high concentrations of CO₂can displace oxygen, resulting in so-called “CO₂ headaches,” drowsiness and general discomfort. Capturing this gas significantly improves the well-being of brewery staff.
Reduces carbon footprint - CO₂ is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activity. Larger emissions of greenhouse gases can lead to very high concentrations in the atmosphere, which can trap additional heat, contributing to global warming.
Financial savings - craft breweries have had to buy CO₂ to use, either later in the brewing process (bottling) or in the production of other beverages (e.g. soft drinks). By capturing and recycling the CO₂, the gas naturally produced during fermentation can be used again.
Guarantees supply – brewers control the source of CO₂, facilitating organic production and brewing according to the German purity law.

Large, commercial breweries have the technology and resources to recycle CO₂, but small breweries have not been able to capture the gas. Instead, it is typically discharged into the production room, while at the same time, CO₂ is purchased in tanks for later use in the filling and bottling process.

Equipment to support recycling of CO₂ produced during the brewing process could potentially have a huge impact on the craft brewing market. The biggest challenge would be developing a solution on a smaller scale, that brought all the benefits, while remaining cost effective.

Carbon Footprint in Real Terms

By using Kim Dallum’s equipment, for each kilogram of CO₂ recovered from fermentation, a further kilogram is saved by eliminating production and shipping of CO₂ from an industrial gas company.2

A medium-sized craft brewery, like the ones Kim works with, emits between 50 and 75 metric tons of CO₂ annually during the fermentation process. With the ability to recycle CO₂, these breweries can therefore reduce their total carbon footprint by 100 to 150 metric tons.

*https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
**https://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/average-co2-emissions-new-passenger-cars-registered-europe-decreased-12-2020-and-share-electric_en

Building an innovation from the ground up

Upon founding his company, Kim approached several craft breweries with different ideas for new equipment and collaboration, based on his previous experience with large commercial breweries. The craft breweries showed interest in the creation of an affordable, small system to capture and compress CO₂.

In 2019, Dalum started a partnership with Ørbæk Brewery to develop a piece of equipment, which would capture CO₂ emitted during the fermentation process and compress it for storage and reuse at a later stage.

Partnering to make sustainability possible

“We quickly realized there was no existing technology available, so we would have to completely build everything ourselves,” says Kim. “This was a true development project with a lot of turbulence and changes based on trial and error.

“We began our search for outside experts and suppliers to fill the gaps we had. We were aware that it could be challenging to find the support we were looking for, since there is always some risk involved working with start-up companies. Fortunately, we were able to find a supportive group of suppliers willing to invest time and resources to help us develop this piece of equipment.

“We knew we would need a seal supplier to help develop a sealing solution for the compressor unit and reached out to a number of companies. We were looking, not only for someone to supply sealing components, but also one with expert knowhow and a partner who could help us evaluate and specify seal designs and materials for our equipment. Trelleborg Sealing Solutions expressed a lot of interest in collaborating with us.”

An Invaluable Partnership

Collaboration with the local Trelleborg Customer Solution Center in Denmark and the Helsingoer manufacturing site was easy. The Trelleborg team provided guidance throughout the entire process, analyzing the seals after testing to understand how they were functioning in the equipment and what adjustments needed to be made, both to the seal and to the hardware.

Kim recalls: “One story from early on in our partnership highlights the important role Trelleborg played. Analysis on a Zurcon® engineered plastic seal, a standard material for applications such as ours, showed that CO₂ was forming carbonic acid somewhere inside the compressor. This caused the stainless steel in the equipment to rust and build a black slurry, which was damaging the seals. The discovery led us to add additional filters to the system to make the equipment run cleaner.”

Trelleborg and Dalum collaborated through several rounds of modifications, testing seals and making other adjustments to the hardware in the compressor. The seals were carefully matched to the application environment, which changed with each adjustment made. When the operating temperatures within the compressor increased, Trelleborg helped to identify a new material that would withstand more extreme conditions. Turcon® FoodPro® MF6 proved to be the best material for our application, ensuring CO₂ remains in the compressor as the pressure and temperature rises.

Sealing the CO₂ Compressor

Mikkel Moerup, Global Segment Director, Food, Beverage & Potable Water, shares the Trelleborg side of the story, “When we received Kim’s inquiry to collaborate with him on a system to capture and compress CO₂, we knew immediately that this would be a rewarding project. We were encouraged to use our full breadth of expertise on sealing technology to test, analyze and create the optimum sealing solution for his equipment. The path was not an easy one, but together with our team at the Customer Solution Center Denmark and colleagues at the manufacturing site in Helsingoer, we were able to meet the challenge.”

Kim’s CO₂Recovery Plant is an especially challenging application for seals and sealing materials. The seals had to satisfy several requirements:

CO₂ is compressed in a dry application. Without lubricants, the seal must demonstrate high dimensional stability and low friction to ensure smooth performance and prevent friction and wear.
As the CO₂ was being compressed, the temperature in the compressor raised to a high level. Initially, a Zurcon® FoodPro® engineered plastic was tested in the system, but higher temperatures were a challenge. It was clear that a Turcon® FoodPro® PTFE was required.
Sealing materials must meet government compliance requirements and industry guidelines for food contact materials (US Food and Drug Administration (FDA CFR 21), EU (Reg. EC 1935/2004), and Chinese National Standards (GB 4806.1-2016, GB 4806.11-2016, GB 9685-2016)).

Materials and seal designs were tested in parallel to identify the optimum solution. The sealing solution devised for the CO₂ recovery plant consists of Turcon® Glyd Ring® APG for the compressor pistons and Turcon® Slydring® GM for the linear bearings.

The Turcon® Glyd Ring® APG is characterized by a relatively small sized Turcon® ring, compared to the energizing O-Ring, which offers maximum flexibility and effective sealing performance at very low pressures. The saddle design of the Turcon® ring protects the O-Ring. Turcon® FoodPro® MF6 was identified as the material of choice for both seals due to its superior performance in the application environment and its compliance with all major food contact regulations.

“Trelleborg is a sealing supplier that stands out in the market because they understand how to work together with me as a customer, on complex engineering problems and make special seals that solve the particular challenges of my equipment.” – Kim Dalum

The CO₂ Recovery Plant – Up and Running

In March 2020, after just over one year, Dalum’s first CO₂ Recovery Plant was up and running at the Ørbæk Brewery. This was a big milestone.

“While I was familiar with similar systems in large breweries, it was very challenging on such a small scale,” continues Kim. “Many things had to be rethought and redesigned along the way and we were limited with price constraints, which is precisely why something like this had not been possible before in medium and small breweries.”

After installation of the first system, Kim was ready to sell the equipment. In October 2020, a second CO₂ Recovery Plant was installed at Svaneke Brewery on the Danish island of Bornholm.

How the CO₂ Recovery Plant works

What’s Next?

Now that the the CO₂ Recovery Plant has been successfully implemented at two breweries, Kim envisions two next steps or challenges for Dalum Beverage Equipment.
First, he wants to create a version of the Recovery Plant, designed for smaller microbreweries, that meets their needs in terms of size, volume and price. This second version will have around one-fourth of the capacity of the current plant and is intended for breweries that brew less than 5,000 hectoliters per year. A plant of this smaller size would be particularly interesting because this would be relevant for the largest number of craft brewers. Breweries like Ørbæk and Svaneke are larger than most of Kim’s potential customers.

At the same time, Kim wants to scale up production of the Recovery Plant, so he can make it available to a larger number of breweries in a smaller span of time. With this, a number of new challenges arise. Kim explains, “we need to shift to design for manufacturing and serial production. Investment is another issue; we need financial backing to support the production of the first series and orders from customers who want this equipment in their breweries.”

But Kim won’t have to do this on his own. “We are proud to have been selected as one of 14 companies to take part in GreenUp Accelerator, a program, organized by the Technical University of Denmark Science Park, for climate tech start-ups working with CO₂ reduction. This ambitions acceleration program aims to effectively transition companies like ours from start-ups to scaled up businesses ready to enter international markets and thereby effectively reduce CO₂ emissions.

“My mission is to make a significant contribution to reducing global CO₂ emissions in the craft brewing market by growing Dalum Beverage Equipment to a multi-million Euro business. And while doing this, I look forward to meeting and working with many more craft brewers, who are as passionate about their jobs as I am about mine.”

Find out more about Kim’s CO₂ Recovery Plant

Denmark’s First Brewery with CO₂ Neutral Brewing

Svaneke Bryghus is on the Danish island of Bornholm and for many years, it has worked with sustainable initiatives. More recently, they moved to 100% organic ingredients in 2018, and established a canning in 2019. In 2020, the next goal was to brew, bottle and tap CO₂ neutral, which was achieved with the carbon capture equipment from Dalum Beverage Equipment.

Jan Paul, Brewmaster at Svaneke Bryghus explains, “you add carbon dioxide when the beer is bottled, but at the same time, carbon dioxide is formed when the beer ferments. We brew about 17,000 hectoliters of beer per year, the equivalent of 3.4 million half-liter bottles, and this produces approximately 72 tons of CO₂, which can now be recycled during the filling process.

Jan continues, “Kim Dalum loves to innovate and so do I. Working with him to co-create a piece of equipment made sense. Because of Kim’s deep insight into the world of brewing, we formed a unique partnership to optimize Svaneke’s brewing process.”

Game Changer – Marking a Milestone

Since the beginning of the year, all beer at Svaneke is brewed CO₂ neutral. This milestone has been marked with a new beer called Game Changer.

Alongside the new title, the carbon capture equipment has had a positive impact in other ways. Jan says, “less CO₂ in the brewery improves the working environment as well. ‘CO₂ headaches’ are not unfamiliar to brewers as the gas normally escapes the process. When CO₂ is captured this problem is gone. Also, Svaneke condensates and captures other fumes from the fermentation thereby eliminating the smell that often spreads to the brewery’s surroundings. This is very positive for our neighbors.”

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