INDUSTRY FOCUS FOOD & BEVERAGE COMBINED SYSTEM MAKES OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION
By replacing rented equipment with a compressed air and on-site nitrogen generation system from Atlas Copco, Outstanding Brewing Company can be certain of its commitment to enhance product quality, productivity and growth
F
ounded in 2008, the Outstanding Brewing Company is an independent
craft brewery that produces standard and bespoke cask real ales, beers, stout and lagers using a combination of traditional brewing techniques and innovative technology. Re-locating from Bury to larger premises in Salford has allowed the company to fulfil its sales expansion targets through investment in plant equipment upgrades – which will increase beer output volume while maintaining the products’ character and qualities. In keeping with the brewery industry at large, the Outstanding Brewing Company has to rely on a continuous supply of compressed air and nitrogen as a critical element at every stage of the production process: right from purging kegs and tanks, oxygenating beer to promote fermentation, right through to filling, bottling, labelling and packaging. It became evident to the company that
its existing rented equipment would not be able to cope with the new volume targets or, for that matter, provide opportunities for future growth. The company’s management therefore saw the investment in a new system as the best option. As a result, they turned to Atlas Copco to install units that would not only meet its process needs but also provide opportunities to realise operational cost savings, in terms of energy requirement, and a comparatively
short-term payback on capital costs. Not only is compressed air essential for
flushing the company’s brewing tanks, bottle filling and labelling, it also plays a direct role in the nitrogen supply and in the brewing process itself, such as aerating the wort – the malt infusion that is fermented to make the beer. To meet all these needs, Atlas Copco installed a system comprising a tank-mounted 5.5kW GX5 rotary screw compressor with integral refrigerant dryer, which delivers 10 bar air at a rate of 10 l/s (36 m3
/h),
together with a two stage UD+ coalescing filter, PDp+ particulate filter and activated carbon QDT filter for hydrocarbon and odour removal. The energy-efficient compressor’s dry air output feeds a plug-and-play NGP8+ nitrogen generator and buffer tank, then a separate storage receiver for nitrogen at
There are many advantages of using on- site nitrogen generation in comparison to a delivered nitrogen bottle or liquid nitrogen service. Taking into account fuel costs and carbon emissions associated with truck delivery, wastage from on-site liquid storage and conversion to gas, plus rental fees and hazmat charges, point of use nitrogen generators tick all the right boxes
the required purity. The NGP+ generator’s operation is based on Pressure Swing Absorption (π) technology. Carbon molecular sieves isolate nitrogen molecules from the compressed air while oxygen, CO2, water vapour and other gases are adsorbed. The result is a guaranteed and continuous supply of nitrogen at purity levels of up to 99.999%. This is used for purging the casks, kegs and tanks and gassing certain products. The NGP+ generator is fully automated and monitored, with an oxygen sensor as standard. A special off-spec check feature means that nitrogen with a purity that is under the specified threshold cannot reach the sensitive process application. In this instance the NGP+ would recycle the nitrogen to the buffer tank until the required purity is attained. The condition of the feed air being supplied by the compressor is also continuously monitored. When it doesn’t match the generator’s requirements, the feed air is blown off before it can enter the nitrogen generator and an operator is alerted to the issue. Alex Lord, director at Outstanding
Brewing, said: “We continually evolve our unique dual brewery system, which we designed and installed to enable us to brew two different beers simultaneously.” He added: “In order to achieve the desired level of carbonation in differing beer styles we have adopted a number of techniques including natural and induced high pressure, aided by the Atlas Copco equipment.” Lord realises the advantages of using
OFFLINE CODING BOOSTS SPEED IN CHEESECAKE PACKING
An offline RF2 feeding system fitted with an iJet thermal inkjet coding system from Rotech has helped The English Cheesecake Company boost the speed and efficiency of its packing operations, allowing the company to date code a pallet’s worth of cheesecakes in less than 2 minutes. The English Cheesecake Company makes a range of luxury cakes for variety of customers, including Ocado and Makro. The products range from individual mini-cheesecakes to giant cheesecakes that serve 60 people. Most of the products are supplied blast frozen, with an outer sleeve and best before date applied before they enter the freezer. Rather than printing best before dates onto the filled cheesecake boxes, the new RF2 system prints them onto the flattened sleeves before they are erected. “The RF2 system can code thousands of flat pack cartons at once so it’s very efficient,” said commercial director Josh Laurier. “Many of our products are sold to the wholesale market. These cakes tend to be bigger than retail versions, so it’s much more convenient to carry out the printing on the flat sleeves, rather than printing onto the completed packages, which are quite bulky to handle.” The RF2 feeding system takes a stack of flat sleeves and separates and feeds them rapidly through a
compact, mess-free i-Jet thermal ink jet coder before re-stacking them on the other side. This enables the system to position the date codes precisely and virtually eliminates smudges and errors to deliver a high- quality result. Having recently won a contract from Waitrose to supply chilled cheesecakes, The English Cheesecake
Company required an in-line coding solution to add dates to the erect boxes containing the chilled cakes. The chilled products are perishable, so need to be printed with their best before dates on the same day they’re produced and dispatched. The company therefore ordered a second date coder from Rotech. Rotech Machines
www.rotechmachines.com 26 MAY 2018 | PROCESS & CONTROL
Atlas Copco
www.atlascopco.co.uk/compressorsuk
on-site nitrogen generation in comparison to a delivered nitrogen bottle or liquid nitrogen service, with point of use nitrogen generators ticking all the right boxes.
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