Image: MintGreen / Container Brewing · Original source. Partnership product photograph; it does not establish commissioning of the heat system.
Renewables and heat reuse
MintGreen announces a partnership with Container Brewing to supply recovered heat to its steam-boiler system.
- Project at a glance
- Brewery heat integration
- Source date and context
- Undated partnership page; reviewed September 2026
- Published financial detail
- The sources reviewed do not include full project accounts.
- Our comparison
- A UK example per 1,000 miner kWh
About 5 minutes to read
A brewery partnership announced by MintGreen
MintGreen's announcement says its Mini Digital Boiler will supply heat to Container Brewing's steam boiler system. The published page describes the intended partnership and its benefits, but supplies no commissioning record or measured heat delivery. For a brewery considering the idea, the first task is to identify exactly which heating duty the recovered energy can serve.
“will use energy twice to supply heat to Container’s steam boiler”
Choose the right point in the brewing process
Brewing and cleaning require heat at different temperatures and at different times. Recovered water may be useful for preheating, with the boiler providing the remaining energy needed for steam. That is an engineering option to investigate, rather than a confirmed description of this installation. A storage tank may help match continuous mining with intermittent brewing, but brings its own cost and losses.
What the numbers could look like in the UK
The calculation below uses assumed UK prices to show how the costs fit together. It is our example, not this project’s reported earnings. Replace the inputs with current machine estimates and the costs at your own site.
Illustrative UK calculation
Income and running costs
1,000 kWh used by miners, plus 50 kWh for pumps and fans. All amounts in pounds.
Operating contributionBefore equipment and installation costs
−£9.60−0.96p per miner kWh
This example buys electricity at 12p/kWh and values useful heat at 6p/kWh. These are assumed prices. The heat value should be replaced with the actual cost of the heating you would otherwise use, or the price a customer agrees to pay.
| Mining income | 8p per miner kWh; an assumed rate, not a live earnings estimate |
|---|---|
| Electricity | 12p/kWh × 1,050 kWh = £126.00 |
| Pool fee | 2% of gross mining income |
| Useful heat | 80% of miner electricity = 800 kWh; valued at 6p per delivered kWh |
| Other running costs | £10 per 1,000 miner kWh; an allowance to replace with your own costs |
| Costs still to add | Equipment, installation, finance, tax, depreciation, major replacements and any costs above the allowance |
The contribution is what remains from mining income and useful heat after the stated running costs. It is not net profit: the equipment and other excluded costs still have to be recovered. Pumps and fans use electricity but earn no mining income in this calculation.
| Gross income per miner kWh | Without heat value | With useful heat |
|---|---|---|
| 5p | −£87.00 | −£39.00 |
| 8p Chart example | −£57.60 | −£9.60 |
| 11p | −£28.20 | £19.80 |
- Mining income needed to cover running costs
- 8.98pper miner kWh
- Highest electricity cost or export value supported
- 11.09pper total electricity kWh
These are two ways to read the same example. Adding equipment costs or a larger maintenance allowance raises the income needed and reduces the electricity price the project can afford.
Compare heating options and work out annual costs
Use the heating system you would actually choose as the comparison. For example, a heat pump using electricity at 20p/kWh with a seasonal COP of 3 has an electricity cost of about 6.67p per kWh of heat. A resistance heater at that tariff uses 20p per kWh of heat. These are calculation examples, rather than measurements from this project.
For an annual estimate, use the miner electricity expected during hours when running makes sense. Scale the contribution by annual miner kWh divided by 1,000, then deduct fixed annual costs. Recalculate if electricity prices, mining income or usable heat change.
Simple payback is the total installed cost divided by positive annual cash contribution. There is no payback under a scenario with zero or negative contribution. The sources reviewed here do not provide the full project accounts needed to calculate an actual payback for this installation.
Match heat production to the brewing schedule
Boiler feedwater preheating is a useful screening opportunity where recovered water is below process temperature.
Obtain a commissioning record and map process temperatures, flow rates and schedules. Meter heat at the boiler-system connection and maintain separation from food-contact circuits.
Questions worth asking
- Which specific duty receives the heat?
- Does the integration reduce purchased fuel without changing cleaning or brewing performance?
Try your own electricity and heat figures
Compare available miners and dated earnings estimates. Include heat only where you can use it or have a customer for it.
Sources and photographs
Sources checked on 29 September 2026. Project facts and quotations come from the publications below; the UK calculations and practical assessment are The Mining Shop’s analysis. This article is based on published material, rather than a site visit.
Photographs: MintGreen / Container Brewing (source).
Join the ASIC Mining Discussion
Members can read and join the discussion
Log in to read comments from other miners. Create a free account if you would like to ask a question or share your experience.
Membership helps us protect the discussion from spam and keep answers useful.