Recently, a team consisting of five engineering students from the Oregon State University Industrial Assessment Center, also known as the Energy Efficiency Center, performed an assessment for Deschutes Brewery in Bend, OR. The team spent a day at the facility investigating energy saving opportunities such as installing a CO2 collection system, replacing rinse nozzles, and reducing the datacenter set point temperature. The service is provided at no cost to the facility, and the student team gained invaluable experience in a real industrial engineering context.

As a result of the analysis, the team concluded the report with five energy and money saving recommendations that have the potential to create over 240 thousand dollars in annual savings for the facility. This includes saving over 233,000 kWh and 2.6 million gallons of water annually. The average payback period was around 7 months for each project.

 Deschutes Brewery is very mindful of sustainability and actively work to improve themselves. This current year the facility is working to reduce water consumption and clean up their wastewater streams. In particular there was one area involving rinse nozzles that had been on their radar for some time, a project that the IAC was able to quantify for the facility.

The audit was led by Austin Alvey Aguilera, a senior in Environmental Engineering. Austin reported “Deschutes prioritizes sustainability and constant improvement, and that was clearly evident throughout the facility. The employees were friendly, knowledgeable, and keen to answer our questions. It’s always fun to see the inner workings of a local business that produces such a tasty product!” The recommendations identified by the team were discussed on the assessment day and implementation of these new energy saving practices can be expected.