Ciders have been growing in popularity over the past few years and South Africa has experienced robust year-on-year growth in volume terms. However, consumers in South Africa have become more discerning and demanding of cider, placing added pressure on manufacturers to deliver new and appetising products in a more competitive market.
High-Tech Processing is a breweries and soft drink plant systems provider and consultant, which offers comprehensive, integrated engineering solutions to food and beverage manufacturers. The company was recently involved in a large plant expansion project for an international beverage manufacturer in South Africa. Together with Endress+Hauser, it was able to integrate capabilities between products, system solutions and services, to create an efficient, cost-saving operation for the customer.
With almost 50 vessels to engineer and commission, this was no small task for High-Tech Processing’s lead engineer Reinhardt Grobler. When asked what the main challenges were, he replied: “In building a beverage processing plant, one of the primary objectives is to gain consistent product quality by employing the benefits of effective process automation. The key is selecting suitable instrumentation that is capable of producing an accurate and repeatable indication of the process status. This may seem obvious, but with an overwhelming choice of techniques and designs, on what basis does the engineer select the ‘ideal’ instruments?’”
Expert advice from Endress+Hauser
Well known as a leader in instrumentation in the food and beverage industry, Endress+Hauser was able to provide expert advice on reliable measurements that would supply the data necessary for an ideal process. The application involved the measurement of volume in 15 m high tanks containing 2 200 hl of cider. The tanks were equipped with an agitator and the product would often form thick layers of foam. The Deltapilot FMB70 hydrostatic pressure transmitter was selected for level measurement in the tanks. It is not affected by foam and is perfectly adapted to fast-changing process conditions. The patented hermetically sealed Contite measuring cell is condensate and
climate resistant and the sensor shows long-term stability and accuracy, even following CIP/SIP cycles. Hydrostatic level transmitters are probably the simplest to use and apply. A sensor converts the pressure of liquid head acting on a process diaphragm into an electrical signal. When the density of the liquid is known, this signal is a direct indication of the level. Such level transmitters are commonly used in food and beverage applications.
However, when the customer decided to use the tanks for a variety of different products, with a change in product characteristics, the calculated volume was affected by the changes in density. To overcome the challenge and gain more accuracy, a density computer was incorporated. In conjunction with the tuning fork, Liquiphant M, the density computer FML621 returns a continuous measured density value. The volume in the tank is then easily calculated, since both the density and hydrostatic pressure are known.
The new volume calculation, with the corrected density, resulted in 1,5% inaccuracy over the total volume. There was a decrease in lost production time since the packaging team was able to optimise their process due to the more accurate volume measurement. This eliminated stoppages on the line to wait for more bottles so that the tanks could be emptied, or on counter side, bottles remaining empty when the tanks run dry earlier than expected.
Through the now density compensated volumes, the plant was also able to decrease the amount of product sent to drain, and as a result production costs decreased through less wastage. As a bonus, the more accurate stock measurements eliminated the unnecessary alcohol taxes paid previously on false volumes.
For more information contact Natlee Chetty, Endress+Hauser, +27 (0)11 262 8000, natlee.chetty@za.endress.com, www.za.endress.com
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