ICB Distillers set to reduce production costs with contact-free flow meter
MEASUREMENT & MONITORING FLOW TECH CUTS COSTS
BURKERT
ICB Distillers set to reduce production costs with contact-free flow meter
The FLOWave flowmeters deliver up to 50 % water saving and minimise the time for cleaning cycles.
Drinks producer ICB Distillers wanted to reduce production costs while maintaining hygiene and product quality. Introducing Bürkert’ s FLOWave flowmeter to provide accurate measurement without media contact, ICB Distillers has been able to minimise product wastage as well as decrease the volume of water required to flush its CIP process.
At ICB Distillers’ Middlesbrough site, the company produces spirit-based drinks, developing beverages for its own range as well as blending and mixing drinks for various brands and supermarkets. The plant also hosts a bottling facility, producing around 30 million retailready bottles each year. Spirits such as rum as well as ethanol are transported to the facility where they are mixed with an array of ingredients, such as fruit juices and creams, plus purified water and sugar, according to the recipe.
Managing product quality When the tanker arrives at ICB Distillers Middlesbrough, the spirit or ethanol flows into a bund containing six tanks. Then, when drinks production takes place, the alcoholic liquid is fed into mixing tanks according to the recipe requirements and alcohol by volume( ABV) level of the particular beverage. This pipe matrix is flexible and allows ICB Distillers to achieve various mixes and create new products as required.
Accurate flow measurement of the spirits and ethanol is crucial to ensure the quality of the beverages, as well as precisely manage stock and optimise the cost efficiency of production. It’ s also vital that flow measurement devices integrated into the matrix maintain hygiene, and with various spirits flowing through the pipes at any one time, preventing cross-contamination is also essential.
ICB Distillers also relies on a clean-inplace( CIP) process, and while it must rinse away all chemicals, minimising water consumption is key to lowering costs and managing sustainability. Up to now, residual spirits within the pipe matrix have also been washed away in the CIP process, with product wastage adding significant cost.
Reducing production costs“ Spirits left in the line have been washed away during CIP” explains Gary Bragman, Project Manager at ICB Distillers.“ It was important for us to move to a system that could integrate a pigging system, save on water, and control product flow with greater accuracy.”
82 PECM Issue 78