PuK - Process Technology & Components 2022

Pumps and Systems

Pumps and Systems Energy-saving conveying technology Smart Air Injection helps breweries save costs Invaluable for tasty liquid gold When processing barley or wheat to make delicious beer or spirits, breweries and distilleries do not stint on good ingredients. But the brewing industry is struggling with sales problems, which due to the corona pandemic have become even more pressing. Large companies in particular are challenged with the need to optimize their production facilities. How costs can be reduced while paying increased attention to sustainability has been successfully proved by the use of SEEPEX progressive cavity pumps with the patented Smart Air Injection (SAI) system when conveying spent grains. Technical know-how from the Ruhr area, Germany’s pilsner heartland, is also successfully contributing to the production of, for example, wheat beer and light beer since progressive cavity pumps with SAI are perfectly suited for conveying highly viscous materials over long distances. This is ideal, in particular, when the spent grains from beer production should Fig. 1: Smart Air Injection is the energysaving conveying technology for breweries and distilleries. (Photo © : Adobe Stock) Fig. 2: In large breweries, a daily energy consumption of 1,000 kWh and more for pneumatic conveying alone is not a rarity. (photos 2-6 Photo © : SEEPEX) be conveyed more efficiently than has previously been possible with conventional processes. After all, the patented system requires much less compressed air and energy to convey spent malt and hop grains. It compresses the by-products into huge plugs and transports them to the silo or storage tank by means of short pneumatic compressed air pulses. Considerable savings in terms of compressed air, energy and costs Process efficiency can thus be significantly increased. “Energy costs can indeed be sustainably reduced with the SAI conveying principle,” says the pump manufacturer’s Head of Product Management. “This conveying principle reduces the compressed air consumption by up to 90 percent thus leading to total energy savings of up to 75 percent. Our technology is totally convincing and effectively supports breweries and distilleries to produce at considerably reduced operating costs. When considering that large companies will easily be able to annually save a five to six figure sum of euros in this production area alone, our tailor-made solution is an economically attractive alternative for every brewery and distillery business.” Compared with a conventional pneumatic conveying system for wet spent grains, the energy costs for the pump operation are similar to those of the screw conveyor of a wet spent grains conveying system, whereas the compressed air consumption is significantly lower. The spent grains removal process becomes more reliable because potential fluctuations of the spent grains’ moisture content will no longer affect the conveying performance of the progressive cavity pump. According to the findings of the Bottrop experts, the time for spent grains removal will thus remain remarkably constant. Furthermore, piping wear can be reduced significantly – owing to the plug conveyance the flow rates are five fold lower than with the continuous pneumatic lean-phase conveying of wet spent grains in conventional conveying systems. The task: Convey the spent grains more efficiently As large breweries have to deal with several hundreds of tons of spent grains every day, the pneumatic conveyance of the material causes an energy consumption of up to 1,000 kWh and more. So far, the by-product has been conveyed with conventional pneumatic conveying systems for wet spent grains that almost continuously need to be supplied with compressed air. After having lautered the liquid phase (wort) from the brew, solids from barley and hops remaining in the mash tun, lauter tun or mash filter should be discharged as soon as possible. Usually, these wet spent 34 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY & COMPONENTS 2022

Fig. 3: Smart Air Injection is a tailor-made SEEPEX system solution, which combines progressive cavity pump with compressed air conveying for breweries and distilleries high compressed air consumption and eventually high energy costs for the brewery. The almost continuous provision of compressed air for the wet spent grains conveying system leads to high costs. Together with the energy consumption of the screw conveyor this incurs annual energy costs amounting to tens of thousands of euros – a big disadvantage in the highly competitive beer market. Large breweries operating 24/7 and using compressors with an output of around 100 kW for their pneumatic spent grains conveying will be able to save more than 100,000 euros per year by implementing SAI. The solution: Short pulses and long plugs Fig. 4: Smart Air Injection is a real all-rounder that is successfully used in various industries. The system consists of the combination of a progressive cavity pump and dense phase pneumatic conveying. Fig. 5: The SAI controller can visualize the entire SAI process, including fault diagnosis. grains have a moisture content of 75 to 85 percent and a temperature of approx. 55 to 70 °C. After the spent grains removal the solids are frequently conveyed over a distance of up to several hundred meters to a silo at a higher level. From there the wet spent grains are transported by truck in order to be used as a resource in animal feed production or for power generation in biogas plants. The transport of the huge quantities of wet spent grains from the removal station to the silo is usually performed by a pneumatic conveying system for wet spent grains consisting of an integrated screw conveyor with subsequent pneumatic lean-phase conveying. The conventional system uses continuously flowing compressed air to suspend the spent grains in the line, which, however, means Short compressed air pulses in greater intervals can easily convey long plugs of wet spent grains. This is like the good old pneumatic tube mail system of days gone bye. With SAI, the screw conveyor of the conventional system is exchanged for a progressive cavity pump of hopper design that can seamlessly be integrated into the existing plant. For a period of several minutes, the progressive cavity pump fills the pressure line with plugs of wet spent grains until the perfect length has been formed. The plugs are then be conveyed by an injection of compressed air that takes only a few seconds. The pressure level in the conveying pipeline permanently remains at a very low level of less than four bar. Speeding up Irish whiskey Conveying the spent grains is an important production step not only for beer. Irish whiskey, for instance, also benefits from the technology of the pump manufacturer from Bottrop for optimal production speed. PROCESS TECHNOLOGY & COMPONENTS 2022