Application of stabilized chlorine dioxide in breweries

25 - Apr - 2026

Beer, with its unique flavor and rich nutrition, is poised to become the mainstream alcoholic beverage in the 21st century. However, the complex brewing process, long production cycle, and humid environment make microbial control technology particularly crucial in beer production. Undoubtedly, promoting the use of a new generation of sterilizing agent—stabilized chlorine dioxide—can significantly improve the current state of microbial control in breweries, playing an irreplaceable role in ensuring beer quality.

(1) Brewery Water Treatment: Water treatment is the most widely used field for stabilized chlorine dioxide. It can be used not only for industrial wastewater treatment but also for drinking water disinfection, decolorization, and deodorization. Since the Niagara Falls Water Plant in the United States first used chlorine dioxide to disinfect drinking water in 1944, thousands of water plants in Europe and the United States have used chlorine dioxide disinfectant. Water is one of the main raw materials in the beer production process, and the quality of the water directly affects the quality of the final beer product. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to treat the raw water of the factory with a certain concentration (0.5-5 mg/L) of stabilized chlorine dioxide disinfectant to produce sterile water that meets the process requirements.

(2) Sterilization during malting : Mold growth in malt has always been a problem in the malting process . Chlorine dioxide is a highly efficient and safe disinfectant and bleaching agent in the beer malting industry . 200 mg/kg of chlorine dioxide can effectively inhibit the growth and reproduction of mold during malting and improve malt quality. Compared with commonly used bleaching powder and formaldehyde, chlorine dioxide is colorless, odorless, non-irritating, and non-corrosive, which greatly improves the working conditions for workers. Moreover, due to its deodorizing effect, it can also reduce indoor odors. In addition, chlorine dioxide can also treat phenol-containing wastewater, oxidizing polyphenols in the water into quinone linear acids, which plays an important role in reducing the concentration of polyphenols in the malting water, which is conducive to extracting more barley polyphenols, reducing malt color, and improving malt quality.

(3) Sterilization of process pipelines and production equipment. With the continuous increase in beer production, the volume and number of storage tanks such as fermentation tanks, yeast tanks, and beer tanks are getting larger and larger. This increases the cleaning pressure of the CIP system and also puts forward higher requirements for sterilizing agents. The current cleaning of beer production process pipelines mainly uses the in-situ cleaning method (CIP) which first uses hot alkali descaling, then high-temperature 90℃ hot water circulation sterilization, and finally low-temperature water cooling. Although this method can achieve the purpose of cleaning and sterilization, the operating cost is high and the consumption time is long, resulting in low operating efficiency of the CIP system. In addition, the use of low-temperature water cooling increases the probability of re-contamination of pipelines. Using chlorine dioxide as a sterilizing agent has the advantages of good sterilization effect, low effective concentration, and fast action speed, making it the most ideal choice for beer companies. Its super sterilization ability can kill heat-resistant microorganisms and Bacillus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which are difficult to be disinfected by heat. It can also reduce the steps of hot water circulation sterilization. After recovering the descaling alkali, it can be directly rinsed with sterilizing water of appropriate concentration of chlorine dioxide, achieving both sterilization and cooling of process pipelines. The sterilized water can also be recycled for reuse.

(4) Sterilization of the production workshop environment. In 1990, Jeng David et al. conducted a sterilization experiment using chlorine dioxide gas and found that at a room temperature of 23°C and a relative humidity of 20%–40%, the time required to kill 90% of Bacillus subtilis at chlorine dioxide concentrations of 15 mg/L and 7 mg/L was 2.5 min and 4.2 min, respectively. Increasing humidity is beneficial to improving the sterilization effect. Under the same conditions, its kill rate against mold is 10% higher than its kill rate against bacteria.

It is well known that the fermentation workshops of breweries are humid environments, ideal for bacterial growth and reproduction. Inevitably, spills or leaks of cold wort, fermentation liquid, and waste yeast occur , providing fodder for microorganisms and leading to the proliferation of harmful bacteria in beer. To ensure a sterile working environment, production departments primarily use formaldehyde and bleaching powder as disinfectants. However, due to their high volatility and irritant properties, long-term use can negatively impact the health of operators. Using chlorine dioxide as a disinfectant, applied through spraying or fumigation in fermentation workshops, is not only effective and quick, achieving an 80% sterilization rate in a single application, but also safe for human health. A combination of evenly spaced and focused fumigation can be used to divide the workshop into several areas. Activated chlorine dioxide is then placed in open containers, allowing it to evaporate from the solution for effective fumigation sterilization. Currently, many beer companies use formaldehyde as a disinfectant for soaking pipe fittings and hoses, but this method is highly hazardous and should be replaced by chlorine dioxide. Using a similar method, another important workshop in a brewery—the bottling workshop—can also achieve a clean and sterile hygienic environment.