In recent years, water resources are facing tough challenges arising from water shortage. As a company with strong social responsibility, Bud APAC constantly decreases water usage year by year through advanced management systems, process optimization and technology upgrading. To date, 21 breweries had a “Clean In Place” (CIP) staged recycling system, resulting in saving 0.79 million tons of fresh water per year. 27 breweries installed bottle washer water recycling systems, which can save 1.51 million tons of water per year. 27 breweries implemented a utility water recycling system and saved 0.4 million tons of water per year. 11 breweries installed reclaimed water deep treatment systems, saving more than 1 million tons of water per year.
Nanning brewery team was awarded the winner cup by AB InBev.
In 2021, Bud APAC’s water usage was 2.34 m³/Kl, a 22% decrease compared to the 2017 baseline, which is far below industry average consumption. In addition, surpassing “90025” – 90 MJ/hl total purchased energy, 0 CO2 purchases and 2.5 hl/hl water usage – in AB InBev breweries is key to delivering our global 2025 Sustainability Goals. In APAC, we led the way in implementing “90025” in our breweries in FY21 and ranked first in the global “2021 90025 Better World Results”. In FY21, 12 out of the 17 breweries successfully operating “90025” were located in APAC and, for the second consecutive year, our Nanning brewery in China won the global “90025 competition”, with our water usage of 1.19 m³/Kl in 2021
Our Nanning brewery was constructed in 2013 and began its operations in 2014. Since then, Nanning brewery has placed water resources management as its top priority. Through collection and recycling of water from the production process, the water recycling rate in Nanning brewery is 95%, which extremely decreases the consumption of fresh water. In Nanning brewery, water-saving initiatives were implemented in each production process.
High-Efficiency Brewing
Nanning brewery implemented a staged CIP process in 2015. CIP process is controlled by a program and completely automatic. Through the installation of pH meter and conductivity meter, CIP was divided into different stages and water of different quality was recycled and reused separately, which can bring 0.1m³/Kl water saving per year. In addition, we researched and developed a super plate heat exchanger, which increases equipment capacity and can save 22 thousand tons (0.12 m³/Kl) of fresh water per year.
Water Center in Packaging
In the packaging area, Nanning brewery invested over 1 million RMB to build a packaging water center in 2015. The water center collected “wastewater” from each water consumption point of packaging lines. The collected water was deeply treated, monitored by an online system, and graded reused, which can save 0.1 m³/Kl of fresh water per year.
Deep Treatment System in Utility
In 2017, reclaimed water of Nanning brewery met the national lake water standard, with daily capacity reaching 1000t/day. Nanning brewery worked with the local government to export reclaimed water to Yu Feng lake which lacks a water source. As a result, Nanning brewery became the zero effluent discharge brewery. Besides, the reclaimed water of Nanning brewery was deeply treated by a reverse osmosis system. Deeply treated water can meet drinking water standards and reuse in the non-product contact process.
Reverse Osmosis System
Yu Feng Lake
Knowing that without water, there is no beer, Watershed management, water conservation and effluent management have been and will continue to be key focuses. We will continue our work to review the level of water stress across where we operate in APAC to develop partnerships that improve water availability and quality (especially in areas facing water stress), and to explore solutions for continuous improvement through our innovative research and development and collaboration with key stakeholders including industry players.
