REDUCING CO2 EMISSIONS IN PRODUCTION

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. It is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth’s carbon cycle, but human activities are altering this natural process that ensures balance both, by adding more CO₂ to the environment and by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests, to remove CO₂ from the air. The main human activity that emits CO₂ is the combustion of fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) for energy and transportation, although certain industrial processes also emit CO₂ and thus, contribute substantially to climate change by adding more CO₂ to the atmosphere.

To address the urgent threat of climate change, we, in Pivara Skopje, have adopted an aggressive carbon reduction strategy. We are aware that the most effective way to reduce CO₂ emissions is to reduce fossil fuel consumption and therefore, we are improving our energy efficiency, switching to cleaner energy sources and developing low-carbon technologies, while taking care to reduce the amount of CO₂ released in the atmosphere. Through innovation and investment, we aim at turning climate risks into opportunities.

Beer and beverage industry depends heavily on steam for its process applications. Process heating and steam systems require large amounts of energy and can easily face decline of energy efficiency because system losses are often difficult to measure or observe. Energy use in process heating systems can be reduced by lowering demand for heating services, improving the efficiency of heat production, heat containment and improved heat transfer, and by recovering heat for reuse.

As part of its efforts to lower CO₂ emissions, the engineering team in Pivara Skopje has been working to improve the efficiency of the facilities and to reduce steam transmission loss in production processes. Some of the implemented initiatives have been optimizing boilers’ capacities according to the actual needs, rearranging their placement and improving steam network insulation to reduce heat transmission loss.

Previously, steam was generated in one boiler room within the plant and distributed to each production process and heat exchanger. This required steam has to be transported over a long distance and thus, a considerable amount of heat was lost from piping. In order to shorten the distance of distributing steam, additional boiler rooms were installed close to the steam-consuming production processes located far from the central boiler room. The offices’ heating systems were also separated from the production steam network and equipped with independent hot water boilers adjusted to enable regulation of the heating according to the seasons or the time of the day.

The new optimized boilers are fully integrated engineered systems that generate high pressure steam in a more efficient and cleaner manner than previously. As a result of the deep process analysis, our engineering team carefully matched the boiler capacities and the actual needs and equipped them with incorporated state-of-the-art combustion control technology, low emissions burners and energy heat recovery systems with condensing economizers. The next initiative of the team was to reduce heat loss by insulating bare fittings and valves along the steam network. Reducing heat loss has a variety of benefits, including lowering the air temperature in the premises, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving employees’ protection.

Electricity is also a significant source of energy for our company and it is used to power our production equipment and offices. The combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity is one of the largest single sources of CO₂ emissions in the world and therefore, our engineering team put permanent focus on energy efficiency, too. Our people are aware that there is an energy efficient alternative to almost every process, equipment, appliance or light fixture and they are constantly trying to uncover the less obvious, exploiting the full potential for making operations as energy efficient as possible by embedding every single opportunity to achieve continual improvement in operational energy efficiency thus, achieving the lowest possible CO₂ emissions.

Cross-functional teams have been established in order to analyze the production cycle times, the potential standby modes for the machines, the use of compressed air, lighting and air conditioning systems, and to provide reliable indications of areas where energy is used inefficiently and offer specific optimization and energy saving solutions.

I am very happy and proud to mention that I have been a part of those teams many times, having the opportunity to support different initiatives and to provide my expertise in finding the best solutions for saving energy. Various projects have been implemented in the area of systems automation, which have helped us achieve significant electricity savings by choosing proper equipment, controlling devices and making appropriate software adjustments.

Combustion of fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel to transport people and goods, is an additional source of CO₂ emissions. In order to address its environmental impact, my colleagues from the Logistics Department are continuously working on optimizing delivery routes and modernizing the distribution fleet. Furthermore, the implementation of the Safe & Eco driving program, monitored by Mobile-Eye and GPS tracking system, will additionally help us not only to improve the safety of our drivers, but also to decrease fuel consumption and so, to decrease carbon emissions.

As I mentioned before, there are some industrial processes that produce CO₂ emissions through chemical reactions that do not involve fossil fuel combustion. The fermentation process in the beer industry produces vast quantities of CO₂, which could escape into the atmosphere. On the other hand, in the further course of production, CO₂ is needed again in its purest form. In order to achieve multiple benefits, Pivara Skopje has decided to invest in a CO₂ recovery plant. The carbon dioxide from the brewery’s own fermentation is processed and stored following strict purity principles. The fully automatic systems carefully process the CO₂ that forms during fermentation. The cleansed CO₂ fulfills all requirements on food safety, and can thus be added to beer during the brewing process. The same amount of CO₂, which would escape in the environment due to the fermentation process, is absorbed further on by the newly growing barley. Therefore, the CO₂ balance of the Pivara Skopje brewery includes exclusively carbon dioxide from fossil combustion processes.

At the end, I would like to emphasize that employees’ knowledge, their awareness and on-the-job behavior could have significant influence on reducing CO₂ emissions. To achieve sustained success of our energy management activities, we have been trying to make our entire workforce aware of the energy efficiency issue for a number of years. Plenty of trainings have been provided to our employees and various ways of communication have been used in order to explain the topic and why it is so important.

From reducing individual energy consumption by turning off lights and electronics when not in use, switching off a part of the production equipment when not in use, to providing timely information to the Maintenance Department about identified steam, compressed air or even CO₂ leakages will help us reduce natural gas, electricity and CO₂ demand. In addition to implementing all applicable corporate successful practices and solutions from other similar industries, we are also engaging and empowering our people to come up with ideas and suggestions for further improvement. Many of them are simple low-cost measures and good housekeeping improvements with short payback periods, but in the case of Pivara Skopje, they are very important ways to reduce energy CO₂ emissions through conservation, as we strive towards leaving the Earth in better condition to the next generations.