Melhoria na etapa de recuperação pós-filtração em uma microcervejaria

Abstract

Beer represents a relevant sector in Brazil, which occupies the third place as a consumer market for the beverage in the world, being responsible for 2% of the national GDP. Draft beer is a product of this environment that has become common in the microbrewery segment and, because it is a “living”, unpasteurized beer, when destined for a stricter market of Super Premium beers, the control and understanding of the unit operations surrounding the product are essential to guarantee the qualities sought by the consumer. In this context, the present study aims to evaluate different hypotheses for the transport of the beer contained in the pressure vessel of the filtration equipment, in order to improve the process by recovering the amount of beer that remains in the equipment. The use of filtration guarantees a yeast-free beer, providing greater conservation and versatility. However, filtration with diatomaceous earth occurs in a pressure vessel, and an amount of beer stagnates in the pores of the filter medium, which needs to be removed without dragging earth into the final product. The use of different hypotheses to circumvent the drag of solids allowed the study of phenomena that occur in the two-phase flow, promoted by the injection of air into the control volume of the equipment when trying to recover the beverage. The study demonstrated that the use of a fluid that did not accentuate the instability of the system, by providing a liquid-liquid flow regime, was the most adequate hypothesis. The recovery of the beer contained in the pressure vessel with water was implemented, and the results in the dilution test demonstrated that the measured beverages obtained a minimum value of 0.1°P and a maximum of 0.2°P of deviation from the expected, values that are within the equipment's error, evidencing the conservation of the product's characteristics. The recovered amount provided savings of 54 thousand reais per year, which guarantees a greater economic viability of the process. This study reinforces the importance of understanding unit operations to generate engineering adjustments aimed at minimizing losses and maximizing production yield, in addition to evidencing how adjustments in the production process promote an increase in revenue.