Mahou, a Spanish beer company, has been implementing an integral system of energetic recovery from the 4% of unfermented beer that is wasted as vapour. The vapour is led to a heat interchanger where its heat energy warms up water from 80ºC to 96ºC and the vapour is condensed.
This technique allows Mahou to recover hot water, which is used in several processes. In addition, biogas produced by the anaerobic wastewater digestion is used as fuel, supplying around 30% of the energetic needs of the brewery.