6 minute read
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
Embracing sustainability in the beer brewing industry
The installation of Grundfos pumps at the Sedibeng brewery’s wastewater plant highlights an international beer brewer’s commitment to water and energy efficiency.
THE INSTALLATION, which is in line with the brewer’s commitment to conserve water as a precious resource, included the installation of a water recovery plant, allowing the operation to further optimise water use within its facility.
The expansion also saw the upgrading of the water treatment plant, where clean ‘raw’ water from the municipality is further purified for brewing purposes. After the beer is produced, beer residues and water used for pipe cleaning is treated to meet regulated environmental discharge limits. This can also be re-used for cleaning, reducing the need to draw on the municipal supply.
According to Raymond Makgoga, Grundfos associate sales engineer, three Grundfos submersible wastewater pumps were provided to transfer water from the brewery to the water recovery plant. After the sedimentation process, water is pumped to the reclamation plant for final treatment. In this circuit, around 6 000m3 of water is pumped daily with the pumps being driven by 15kW high-efficiency motors with IE3 rating.
ACCURATE DOSING “In the water treatment plant, a number of Grundfos Smart Digital S and Smart Digital XL pumps are installed, mounted on dosing skids,” says Makgoga. “These must accommodate a range of chemicals from sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite in the reverse osmosis circuit to citric acid and anti-scalant in the ultra-filtration circuit.” These systems give a high level of control, communicating vital data between the pump and the PLC, so that chemical dosing is accurate and appropriate,” he says. “This eliminates over-dosing and ensures that chemicals are not wasted. The Grundfos pumps are able to measure the volumes of water flow and then dose in proportion.”
The dosing pumps were supplied with the complete package including Grundfos’s CIU 500 interface. The CIU 500 is a standard interface for data transmission between an industrial ethernet network and a Grundfos pump or controller, making data exchange possible between Grundfos pumping systems and a PLC or SCADA system.
SAVING ENERGY Energy efficiency is also an important factor, considering the significant energy consumed by wastewater treatment plants. Large pumps in the system transfer about 1 750m3 of water per hour around the brewery pumping 24 hours a day. The use of IE3 energy efficient motors in the Grundfos pump installations has assisted in reducing energy consumption to about 1.3 kW/kg chemical oxygen demand treated, from a level of over 1.9 previously. •
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Which came first?
Bread-making or beer-brewing?
“Human beings have taken the brewing of alcohol very seriously for centuries,” says Ferdie Fortuin, sales manager – general industry at Danfoss Drives South Africa. Danfoss provides solutions for different processes throughout the brewing industry, where ‘control’ is a key word all the way from mash to bottled product.
WHICH CAME FIRST in the history of civilisation: bread-making or beer-brewing? Since the 1950s, scientists and scholars have been arguing about what really caused our early ancestors to start farming and settling down, rather than remaining as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Which came first? Breadmaking or beer-brewing? “Whichever it was, Danfoss now has experience in breweries’ application systems worldwide. Danfoss variable speed drives (VSDs) are suitable for all processing control and monitoring, no matter what the specific protocols might be. With our latest condition-base monitoring technology, we can even provide more information feedback from a single drive that could assist with maintenance schedules within the breweries,” says Fortuin.
Fortuin clarifies that a brewing company in the Netherlands decided to embrace innovation from Danfoss to secure a more solid and sustainable future. The solution involved using Danfoss VLT drives with integrated CBM capabilities to reach its goals.
THE CHALLENGE With the European beer market expected to grow 15.2% by 2025, the company realised that to meet demand, its production line had to deliver a consistently reliable and excellent performance.
However, prior to Danfoss Drives’ input, the brewery faced costly and lengthy disruptions whenever a machine fault occurred with operations taking place in harsh, wet conditions and all applications containing concealed motors, making them difficult to access when issues arise.
Danfoss was tasked with helping the brewery to: • Increase up-time • Lower overheads • Improve management of spare parts and stock • Access new levels of machine data • Boost application and system performance.
THE SOLUTION In August 2019, Danfoss Drives proposed that the brewery install VLT drives with
Ferdie Fortuin, Sales
Manager at Danfoss Drives South Africa
embedded intelligence, connectivity and sensor capabilities. Condition-based monitoring signals were then integrated into the brewery’s maintenance system via edge computing.
The brewery also received 4-20mA vibration sensors from Hansford Sensors and Danfoss provided additional support with project scoping, commissioning and training as well as hosting workshops to determine the best solution for the company’s needs.
The VLT drives also support pre-existing communication interfaces and software such as fieldbus, local control panels and VLT Motion Control Tool MCT 10, meaning the brewery did not have to invest in a new parallel system as part of the upgrade.
THE OUTCOME “The VLT Motion Control Tool MCT 10 plug-in brought a tremendous improvement enabling seamless commissioning with consistent parameter settings. And so, with the power to gather more critical application data in real-time than ever before, the brewery was able to optimise its production line while solving all its challenges and building a total value proposition. In addition, Danfoss Drives’ digital expertise enabled the company afterwards to retrofit the rest of its drives elsewhere in its facilities with condition-based monitoring functionality,” says Fortuin.
This upgrade shows that condition-based monitoring is no longer a premium product meant for a few critical assets, but an affordable solution available for all, provided by Danfoss Drives’ innovative and forward-thinking approach. “Edge computing in the drive ensures smart and simple conditionbased monitoring. At Danfoss, we have the required experience and specialised application knowledge to act as a competent and trustworthy partner for the global brewing industry. It seems that humankind has been brewing beer since the dawn of time and it is Danfoss’ proud intention to continue assisting this process to the highest standards of efficiency and quality control,” Fortuin concludes. •
Dutch brewing company continues innovations with Danfoss VLT drives
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