Industrial Water Diagnostic

The challenge

A growing craft brewery operating across two sites, consuming over 21,000 m³ of water per year, with limited metering, no centralised monitoring, and a water ratio that needs to improve significantly ahead of a planned production doubling by 2030.

Val-Dieu Brewery produces its range of abbey beers across two sites in the Liège province: brewing and fermentation take place at the historic Val-Dieu site in Aubel, while bottling, kegging, and storage are handled at a second facility in Chaineux. Combined, the two sites consumed an estimated 21,377 m³ of water in 2024, equivalent to a water ratio of 7.12 m³ per m³ of beer produced.

Water is woven into every stage of the process. At Val-Dieu, it is used for mashing, rinsing brew vessels, CIP cleaning of fermentation and maturation tanks, steam generation, and cooling. At Chaineux, it feeds bottle and crate washing machines, keg cleaning and filling lines, and further CIP cycles. Most of this consumption was unmetered at the use-point level, making it impossible to know where water was actually going or where reductions could be made without compromising hygiene or product quality.

The effluent situation differs between the two sites. Val-Dieu operates outside the public sewer network and evacuates its industrial wastewater by truck to a co-owned treatment station, at a fixed cost per journey. Chaineux discharges to the public sewer under a permit that classifies brewery effluent as domestic wastewater, subject to specific conditions that had not been formally verified.

With production targeted to reach 40,000 hL per year by 2030, representing a 30% increase, and with water tariffs in Wallonia rising by 20% over four years, the brewery needed a clear and honest picture of its water situation before investing further in production capacity.

Val-Dieu mandated Revalio to carry out a full industrial water diagnostic across both sites: mapping all sources, uses, and discharge points, reviewing regulatory compliance and taxation, and delivering a prioritised action plan with return on investment projections.

What Revalio delivered

Revalio structured the diagnostic across five workstreams, combining site visits at both locations, meter inspection, consumption data review, regulatory assessment, and improvement planning.

1. Water Source Analysis

All water sources available to the two sites were identified and assessed. Both Val-Dieu and Chaineux are supplied exclusively by the SWDE mains distribution network, drawing from the Eupen-Gileppe treated reservoir water area. The water is soft, with a hardness of 8°F, and a portion is further softened for steam generation. No groundwater or rainwater is currently used, despite both sites sitting above an exploitable aquifer and receiving meaningful annual rainfall. Revalio assessed the feasibility and resilience value of diversifying supply sources, including the groundwater lens identified during the Einstein Telescope project, which confirmed the presence of exceptionally high-quality water near the Val-Dieu site.

2. Consumption Data Review

Available data sources were reviewed across both sites, including SWDE invoices, meter readings, and process observations. Val-Dieu accounted for an estimated 59% of total consumption at 12,565 m³, with three SWDE inlets on site. Chaineux contributed the remaining 41% at approximately 8,812 m³, based on extrapolation from a partial-year meter reading. Several critical consumption points, including the bottle washer, crate washer, and bottling line at Chaineux, had no dedicated metering, leaving the true breakdown of consumption by use unknown.

3. Usage Mapping and Metering Assessment

Every water use across both sites was mapped: brewing rinses, CIP cycles for fermentation and maturation tanks, bottle and crate washing, keg cleaning and filling, steam boilers, cooling systems, floor cleaning, and domestic use. The assessment identified which existing meters could be digitalised with minimal investment and which critical use points required new meters. CIP cleaning was identified as the dominant industrial consumption category across both sites, with the bottle washer and keg cleaning line at Chaineux, and the fermentation tank CIP cycles at Val-Dieu, standing out as the highest-priority points for measurement and optimisation.

4. Effluent Management and Regulatory Compliance Review

The two sites operate under entirely different discharge regimes. At Val-Dieu, industrial effluent is collected in four buffer tanks totalling 70 m³ and evacuated by truck several times daily to the Epur'Aubel treatment station, of which the brewery is a co-shareholder. The level probe in the first tank was found to give unreliable readings, creating a risk of overflow or unnecessary truck journeys. At Chaineux, effluent is discharged to the public sewer under a permit classifying it as domestic wastewater, conditional on maintaining a discharge ratio below 3 hL per hL of beer bottled and on the presence of mechanical pre-treatment and a monitoring point. Verification of these conditions had not been formally carried out. A review of Val-Dieu's SWDE invoices also revealed that the domestic wastewater tariff appeared to be applied to the production water meter, despite industrial effluent being removed by truck rather than discharged to the sewer, suggesting a potential tax overpayment that warrants clarification.

5. Action Plan with Prioritised Improvements

Based on the diagnostic findings, Revalio developed a prioritised roadmap of seven improvement opportunities, each assessed for investment level, water savings potential, regulatory impact, and broader operational benefits.