Westmalle's Brewery recycles one-third of the water

Thanks to their investment in a renovated water purification plant, there are now only five (instead of eight) liters of water needed to brew one liter of Westmalle. The technology used for this is based on membrane filtration. In 2011, the Trappist Brewery in Westmalle began using a new water purification plant with membrane technology, designed by Pantarein Water, a company which develops ecological water treatment systems.  Using membranes to purify water is a technology with long proven reliability, but which is not used by many businesses.  It is primarily the high cost of the preliminary study that holds back companies from investing in it.  In Westmalle, where profit maximization is not an end in itself, funds were budgetted for this purpose.