Smog City Brewing is a family-run craft brewery focused entirely on creating and distributing exceptional beers. Strong consumer demand for its products has meant that Smog City has been operating at capacity ever since it opened in 2011. Recently, the brewer expanded its taproom space in Torrance and has broken ground on a new expansion that will soon be filled with more fermentation tanks, brite tanks and a new bottling line. Rapid expansion of brewery operations has required more capital resources.
Expansion means making decisions for stuff like onsite electricity and process heat, and Smog City decided on PTG Water and Energy (PTG)’s water-energy cogeneration system, which Smog City’s Co-owner and Head Brewmaster Jonathan Porter thinks will lower production costs, reduce its carbon footprint and derive valuable facility operational data.
PTG’s water and energy system can generate most of the power needed for brewery operations and increase energy efficiency. Initial calculations showed the PTG system could reduce electricity and natural gas bills by more than 50 percent. Better still, the system would eliminate the need to purchase an additional boiler, saving more than $70,000 in capital expenditures. The video below is a great explanation of how the system works.
Upfront capital not needed
Given Smog City’s capital resource plans and in order to preserve expansion resources, PTG agreed to design, build, install and commission its water-energy system in accordance with Smog City’s specifications and with no upfront investment or cost to Smog City. Smog City will purchase the electricity and thermal energy produced by the PTG-owned system at reduced rates compared with current utility-based rates, immediately delivering a significant portion of total potential savings to its brewing facility operations.
“We seriously considered purchasing the PTG energy-water system outright, but this would have required us to divert capital from brewery system improvements. We worked with PTG to come up with an alternate approach, whereby PTG incurs the upfront system investment costs, and we share the energy cost savings,” said Porter. “Our energy costs will be significantly lower, and we will be using much less energy. PTG will handle all the operational details, while we can focus on making great beer. As an additional benefit, we have an option to purchase the system outright after a few years of operation.”
Optimized for craft breweries
PTG Water and Energy’s eco-friendly, electric energy generation and thermal power systems solve several problems for craft breweries and provide some key benefits. These benefits include reducing electricity costs, lowering heating and boiler costs, promoting more sustainable efficient operations and providing valuable operational performance data. Breweries with onsite wastewater treatment facilities can also benefit from our other technologies and systems, such as non-toxic, chemical-free and low carbon footprint wastewater disinfection systems.
PTG Water and Energy specializes in integrating water and energy operations for its customers, creating platforms that reduce waste, cut costs and ultimately deliver attractive returns on investment. In addition, the system platforms collect previously unobtainable data to deliver increased production efficiencies and predictive service analytics. PTG’s technologies are positive from a sustainability perspective. They greatly increase the efficiency of resource use by reducing waste and supporting water reuse.
Rodrigo Nogueira