On the 1st of July, AB Inbev launched two projects with co-funding of the European Commission: LIFE BEVERAGE and LIFE REFRESHMENT. The EU grants co-funding to projects with European added value supporting environmental, nature and climate action projects throughout the EU. These projects are hence completely in line with our ambition to create a cleaner world and embed sustainability and social responsibility throughout our entire value chain.
As the world’s leading brewer, AB Inbev has an important role to fulfil in addressing serious environmental changes such as water scarcity, resource depletion and climate change. With the LIFE BEVERAGE project we aim to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases caused by beverage production through a new process that will be piloted at breweries in Leuven and the UK. The new technology is based on the principle of simulating the effect of boiling without the heating requirements by sparging an inert gas. When applied to breweries in which no energy-reducing measures have been installed in the boiling step, a reduction of the average evaporation rate from 7.5% to 0% could be obtained, improving both the water and energy efficiency. A successful implementation of this technology to other breweries will allow AB Inbev to contribute to a resource-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient economy.
During the brewing process, large amounts of interesting by-products are generated with a wide range of potential applications, such as brewers’ spent grain. However, although brewers’ spent grain is an attractive resource, currently its main application is limited to animal feed. At AB Inbev, we want to fully exploit all resources and produce more added-value products in order to create a more sustainable brewing process. In the LIFE REFRESHMENT project, alternative uses of brewers’ spent grain will be explored by developing new technologies to produce non-alcoholic and healthy beverages making use of brewers’ spent grain. This new technology will increase the resource efficiency during the brewing process and valorize its by-products. In this way, AB Inbev contributes to the shift towards a circular economy, which is focused on large-scale recovery and re-use of material. In addition, with these beverages AB Inbev aims to promote a more healthy life style.