BD LOWERS EMISSIONS BY A THIRD

A new heat pump will reduce DB's annual natural gas use significantly.

DB Breweries is in line for an emissions reduction of over 30 percent after receiving approval for co-funding from Government for a new industrial high-temperature hot water heat pump.

The new high-tech equipment will be in place by the end of 2023 and will use electricity to produce hot water, allowing the brewer to decrease reliance on natural gas and reduce emissions equivalent to taking about 2,643 return flights between Queenstown and Auckland each year.

Collaboration is vital as New Zealand moves towards a lower carbon future," says Matt Wilson, Managing Director at DB Breweries.

Untitled design 44

Matt Wilson, Managing Director at DB Breweries

We are thrilled to  have successfully applied for funding from the Government’s GIDI Fund as we take an important step in decarbonising our Waitematā site and continue moving towards operating fully carbon neutral breweries by 2030.’

To achieve these ambitious goals we’re making significant investments in switching to renewable energy options, with clean sources of process heat the highest priority on our list.

In 2020, process heat accounted for almost 70 percent of DB’s carbon footprint, including steam derived from coal at our Timaru brewery, and from use of natural gas at our largest site, Waitematā Brewery.”

“We’ve already implemented a biomass solution in Timaru which removed the use of coal and reduced thermal energy emissions by 98 percent, decreasing DB’s total carbon footprint by 28 percent.

Now, we’re focussed on the transition from natural gas to renewable solutions at our Waitematā Brewery, which is the largest remaining contributor to our carbon footprint, making up approximately 40% of DB’s total residual emissions,” says Wilson. 

While industrial high-temperature hot water heat pumps are an established and commercially available technology in many parts of the world, they are relatively rare in the food and beverage (and brewing) industries in New Zealand, and present huge potential to help accelerate the decarbonisation of industrial process heat locally.

Set to be installed at DB’s largest site, the new heat pump at Waitematā Brewery will be one of the largest industrial heat pumps of this size in New Zealand, and will decrease DB’s annual natural gas use by approximately 30,000 GJ, this is equivalent to the energy used by around 1,000 average New Zealand households each year.

Our Picks