A British brewery has become the first UK business to trial a new type of heat pump which can cut emissions by up to 90 percent.
Hepworth Brewery, based in Sussex, is using a Greensteam heat pump, developed by Surbiton start-up Futraheat, to deliver low-carbon heat to fuel the brewing process.
Unlike most heat pumps, which deliver hot water up to around 80°C, the Futraheat heat pump can produce steam up to 130°C – vital for the brewing industry and believed to be a first for the UK.
The prototype heat pump is the latest step in a long-term sustainability drive by the independent brewer.
Hepworth Brewery expects the new heat pump will reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with wort boiling by up to 90 percent, whilst lowering fuel costs by up to 40 percent, with potential to roll out the groundbreaking technology across the whole brewing process.
Heat, delivered through high temperature steam pipes, is a vital component of brewing, and many other industrial processes, and is usually delivered by boilers running on gas or fuel oil.
With the new system, Hepworth Brewery can now recycle waste vapour from the brewing process, normally vented to atmosphere, and boost it via Futraheat’s heat pump to deliver useful steam back to the brewery at 130°C.
This will reduce the brewer’s reliance on a CO2-emitting oil boiler and enables it to switch almost all of its heat requirement for wort boiling to the electrically powered heat pump, which runs on a green electricity tariff.
In future, the pilot project could be scaled up site-wide to offset almost all of the fossil fuel generated heat used at the brewery.
The key to the heat pump is a novel, patented turbo compressor, known as TurboClaw, which sits at the heart of the Greensteam system and can boost temperatures by up to 60 degrees.
The ground-breaking heat pump is one of a number of initiatives being adopted by the brewer as part of its commitment to sustainability. Other measures include solar panels, a reed bed and a new waste system which will convert organic matter in wastewater into biomethane.
Hepworth Brewery Chairman Andy Hepworth said: “This pilot project is demonstrating how Hepworth Brewery can adopt innovative technology to switch off our oil boiler and use a reliable new way to recycle our waste heat with minimal emissions.
“The high temperature heat pump from Futraheat will help us cut costs and CO2 and is straightforward to integrate within our existing processes. If this technology were adopted across the whole brewing process, it would reduce our emissions significantly.
“Sustainability has driven the way we do business from day one. We have always looked to source our barley and hops locally wherever possible, to minimise our food miles, and since moving to our current brewery in 2016 we have put in place a number of measures to make us a more sustainable business.
“This heat pump trial is an important next step on our sustainability journey.”
Futraheat believes their technology can be applied to many industries beyond brewing.
Around 70 percent of all UK industrial energy demand is for heat, and much of this can be delivered via high-temperature heat pumps.
Futraheat CEO Tom Taylor added: “Heat is a major component of a huge range of industrial processes, from pharmaceuticals to food and drink, and vast amounts of this is delivered by steam.
“Until now, heat pumps have been both unaffordable and unable to deliver heat at the temperature that industry requires. This project demonstrates the technology can now be implemented within a brewery.
“We’re confident it can then be rolled out across a range of industries, in the UK and worldwide,” Taylor says.
The current project has been delivered in partnership with Hepworth Brewery and the Department for Energy Strategy and Net Zero’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) programme, managed by the Carbon Trust.
Futraheat secured £2million investment in 2023 from backers including the Clean Growth Fund to develop and deploy their next-generation machine, which will incorporate two TurboClaw compressors to deliver heat up to 150 degrees.
Futraheat is in discussions with a number of industrial end users who could adopt this next iteration of the heat pump technology.
