Carlsberg’s Danish brewery becomes the world’s most water efficient brewery

DENMARK – Danish multinational brewing giant, Carlsberg is inaugurating a new, revolutionary water recycling plant that recycles 90% of the process water at the Carlsberg brewery in Fredericia, Denmark.

To achieve this great feat in recycling, the plant uses a new and innovative approach to cleaning and recycling process water where, among other things, UV-light is used to eliminate bacteria.

Carlsberg Denmark Brewing Director, Anders Kokholm says that the recycling process is so effective that the process water ends up being clean enough to drink.

He is however quick to note that the brewery only uses the water to clean the production facilities.

The most efficient brewery in the world

With the new water recycling plant, the Fredericia brewery will save more than 500 million liters of water a year, making the facility the most water efficient in the world.

Installation of the recycling plant will in turn halve the facility’s Water consumption from the current 2.9 hl of water per hl of beer to 1.4 hl of water per hl of beer.

“Water is a basic ingredient in all our products, so water resource management is a high priority. Our water to beer ratio has always been low. Now we are taking it a step further. By recycling process water in our production, we are virtually eliminating water waste,” says Philip Hodges, EVP Integrated Supply Chain, Carlsberg Group.

The reduction in the factory’s water consumption means that there will be more water available to communities where the brewery operates.

Together Towards Zero campaign

Making clean water accessible to communities is a priority in the UN Sustainable Development Goals which Carlsberg aims to support in addition to its own goal of eliminating water waste by 2030 as part of its sustainability programme Together Towards Zero.

The maker of Carlsberg and Tuborg beer brands says it will leverage lessons from the Fredericia brewery to enable the group to reach its target to virtually eliminate water waste globally by 2030.

“As a global company, we have a responsibility to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The new water recycling plant in Fredericia will generate important learnings that can be implemented across our breweries in the rest of the world,” added Carlsberg Group CEO, Cees ’t Hart.

It is estimated that the water recycling plant will also reduce the brewery’s energy consumption by 10% through own biogas production and recirculation of hot water, further contributing to the Together Towards ZERO sustainability programme.

The new facility will be inaugurated at a special event attended by the Danish Prime Minister as well as representatives from Carlsberg and the DRIP-partnership.

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