Steam Boilers and Energy Optimization at the Tequila Industry

I've been working for 5 years now at Casa Sauza in the distillation and boilers area. During this time, one of our main objectives has been to save energy in our boilers area, as a part of the Continuous Improvement program that we are carrying out.

What are boilers used for in tequila production?

The boilers area is the heart of the distillery since steam if fundamental for the Extraction, Hydrolysis and Distillation processes, which are in charge of transforming the agave sugars into tequila.

Which fuels are used for the production of tequila at the boilers area?

At the tequila industry, the most common ones are heavy fuel (Fueloil) and/or Alternative Fuel. They both contain some amount sulfur in the emissions that they release into the atmosphere.

Commitment towards the environment and the use of boilers

Commitment towards the environment has always been a key factor on the mission, vision and values of Beam Suntory Group. They established thus, internal environmental objectives, one of which is to achieve a 10% decrease on the total amount of energy used.

How did we achieve this energy saving at our boilers area?

In 2016, we started working with SBE (Suntory Business Expert) and Miura in the project called Energy Saving at Sauza. In order to achieve our environmental goal, we increased the efficiency of our boilers by switching to a system of one-step boilers.

These boilers were provided by the Japanese company MIURA. By switching to this new technology, the efficiency of our boilers is of a 92% and we have reached a 13% of energy saving in our distillery.

MIURA one-step boilers and natural gas.

A conventional boiler requieres pre-heating for the generation of steam, which implies the use of fuel before the steam is actually administered to the Extraction, Hydrolysis and Distillation processes.

MIURA boilers, on the other hand, generate steam in just 5 minutes, which implies significant savings in fuel consumption. Another change that also contributes to caring for the environment is that MIURA boilers work with natural gas, so we switched from using alternative fuel to natural gas.

Benefits of natural gas vs fueloil

Natural gas:

• Is cleaner
• Has no sulfur
• Reduces maintenance costs in boilers
• Will reduce 3,500 Ton/year of CO2 emissions

MIURA boilers have an on-line maintenance system. This the system sets an alarm or warning before a failure occurs, so that it can be diagnosed and/or corrected before the problem actually happens.

Another benefit of these boilers is in the handling of variable steam loads, since the boilers are multiple installation systems. This reduces energy consumption when meeting the steam demand changes, keeping the vapor pressure stable.

The result with the innovation of this new technology is to significantly reduce energy used as well as the emissions released into the atmosphere, under changing load conditions.

Find more information about our production processes on the links below:

Lean Manufacturing in Tequila

TPM, an Improvement in Working Culture

How to Improve Quality on a Production Line

Come and visit Casa Sauza so you can learn how the modernization of our production processes deliver the purest tequila that you will find in the market.