Flow, level & control
Level switches in the brewing process
Yeast foam can cause problems in the brewing fermentation process in terms of accurate and reliable level measurement. A clever solution from Baumer is helping brewing giant Carlsberg solve problems with overflow in its excess tanks
W
hilst many people would probably be familiar with the Carlsberg advertising slogan
from earlier days they may not appreciate the history and scale of today’s Carlsberg brewing operation. Founded in 1847, it is now the fourth largest brewery in the world producing 2.2 million hectolitres of beer annually, employing around 45,000 staff worldwide and selling around 120 million beers globally every day. Sensing and instrumentation specialist
Baumer has been supplying Carlsberg with instrumentation for more than 10 years, initially for the beer production lines in their plant near Copenhagen and more recently to a new production and distribution centre in Frederica. Yeast is an essential ingredient of the
brewing fermentation process where it is used to conver t the glucose in the wor t to alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, giving the beer its alcohol content and its carbonation. However, yeast foam can be a problem in terms of accurate and reliable level measurement and this is where Baumer have helped Carlsberg to
solve a problem with yeast residues occurring within the fermentation process thanks to their CleverLevel switch. When fermentation is nearly complete
(a process taking around four to six days) most of the yeast will settle to the bottom of the fermentation tank. It is then removed and reused for several fermentation processes before finally being stored in an excess yeast tank and sold off as animal feed. In this final stage of filling the excess tanks, Carlsberg experienced overflow problems due to the heavy build-up of foam which was preventing triggering of the traditional level vibrating forks installed in the tanks. The solution provided by Baumer
was the Cleverlevel switch for detecting the filling level in the yeast tanks. It utilises frequency sweep technology and is a universal level switch for all types of media. The CleverLevel device technology
is effective regardless of whether the media is wet, dry, sticky, or in this case is foam - as opposed to a traditional fork device which simply cannot recognise the condition of the media. Lone
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April 2019 Instrumentation Monthly
Switch it up a beer...
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