Verallia and Mahou partner for energy efficiency project

Verallia Group and Spanish beer brand Mahou San Miguel have partnered to reduce CO₂ emissions at their plants in Burgos, Spain using thermal energy recovery systems.

Verallia and Mahou have joined forces to expand the use of clean energy in production and improve the sustainability profile of their plants.

The two companies’ energy efficiency project uses untapped heat from glass production at Verallia’s plant to generate steam at Mahou’s brewery.

The heat is collected using thermal energy recovery systems.

In short, heat is released during the glass manufacturing process; thermal energy recovery systems collect this excess heat and convert it into power.

The advantages of the thermal energy recovery system are clear: it increases energy efficiency, lowers costs, saves resources, and reduces CO₂ emissions.

To date, Verallia has reduced residual energy temperature of its glass melting process by 40% to save 175 tonnes of CO₂ per year by using steam.

Mahou has been able to cut back on natural gas consumption by more than 60%, resulting in an annual reduction of 4,950 tonnes in CO₂ emissions.

The partnership won gold in the Energy Consumption category at the Retina ECO Awards 2022.

The judges recognised that the collaboration between the two production sites helped both the companies to improve their own environmental standards and their home city of Burgos to conserve resources.