Kalsep's membrane filters clean up at Greene King
15 Jan 2000
The largest single ingredient in beer is also the most overlooked - it's water. Making sure that the water is as pure as possible before it is piped into the mash tun is a vital stage in brewing. Membrane filtration firm Kalsep has devised a new material for removing particulates and metal ions from brewery water, and has now installed its system at Greene King's breweries.
Kalsep's Fibrotex membrane replaces traditional sand and cartridge filters in the pre-filtering step of water purification. These require a lot of space, need downtime for cleaning and tend to clog, the company explains.
Fibrotex removes iron impurities, silt, suspended salts and particulates. At Greene King's Biggleswade brewery, it is achieving 98 per cent particulate removal, and decreasing iron levels to 0.03mg/l, claims Kalsep. Greene King uses the Fibrotex system ahead of a reverse osmosis unit; the water emerges almost as pure as if it had been distilled, Kalsep claims.
Meanwhile, Kalsep is working on a low-fouling membrane. Made from chemically-modified polyethersulphone, the membranes perform 400 per cent better than other membranes, claims the company. The system is currently in brewing industry tests, where it is likely to be used to clean water with high particulate levels.
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