Project Overview
Approved for funding through ERA’s Food, Farming, and Forestry Challenge in 2021, Blindman Brewing aimed to demonstrate the applicability of a new CO2 capture and reuse technology in the Alberta and Canadian markets. By completion in 2024, Blindman Brewing purchased, installed, and commissioned a technology to capture the CO2 produced during fermentation and reuse it in the brewing process.
CO2 Capture and Utilization in the Brewing Process
Blindman Brewing partnered with Earthly Labs to adopt their CO2 capture and reuse technology in its brewing process in collaboration with Olds College and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. CO2 that is free from oxygen and nitrogen is captured from the fermentation process and sent to a foam trap, where most of the liquid is removed. An onboard sensor monitors the incoming gas stream to determine the concentration of CO2 and O2. Once the concentration of O2 drops below 0.1% the gas is filtered to remove any impurities and compressed for storage in dewar tanks. It can then be reused in several processes in the plant, like carbonation, packaging and purging. The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by capturing and reusing CO2 that would otherwise be vented to the atmosphere—in a financially viable way.
System Successfully Installed and Certified
Over the course of the project, equipment was purchased, tested, verified, delivered, and installed. Process design was completed, and certifications were finalized. Fermentation tanks were tied in, and training on the equipment was conducted. CO2 was captured and analyzed for quality and utilization in the brewing process. During certain periods of operation, oxygen ingress was detected, which creates an off-spec captured CO2 stream, not suitable for carbonation. CO2 was then introduced in a staged approach in brewing operations to allow for full utilization of captured CO2 going forward. A new stainless-steel manifold upgrade was designed and produced for installation. Finally, the utilization of the captured CO2 was undertaken.
During the project, the main vendor, Earthly Labs, was acquired by a larger industrial gas equipment supplier, Chart Industries, which took over installation and equipment procurement with some logistical and testing delays. This equipment was novel to Canadian regulators; a full regulatory review was completed before it was certified for use in Canada.
What’s next?
Post-project, residual work will be required to maximize the amount and quality of CO2 captured in the future. The financial model is yet to be verified. Blindman plans to analyze the operating, installation, and commissioning costs, along with cost reductions from offsetting purchased CO2 and modelling based on fermentation data. However, the expected market adoption across Alberta and Canada due to potentially strong economics and equipment is already being manufactured for other brewing customers across Canada.