GERMANY – Swiss equipment manufacturer Bühler has developed a digital service, branded MontBlanc, which measures and recommends to beer producers the appropriate fan speed for kilning their barley during the brewing process.
According to the company, reducing the kiln fan speed can generate savings of up to 25% during the withering phase, significantly cutting CO2 emissions.
Bühler has also come up with a mini brewery as well as a modular brewery, which allows brewers to extend and adapt their capacity according to each customer’s demands.
Meanwhile, the company has a standardized modular malting plant, branded RimoMalt, which has an annual throughput of between 1,000 tons and 17,000 tons of malt.
Bühler recommended that the modular malting plant is suitable for breweries up to 1.1 million hectoliters and distilleries up to 10 million liters while also having the capability to be easily extended, providing batch sizes between 16 and 56 tons.
The batch sizes of both the cylindroconical steeps and germination-kilning units can be increased and there is also a possibility of putting several process boxes next to each other to create a full 24-hour batch cycle.
Mark Helmers, the company’s product manager for malting and brewing, said: “This is a unique digital service for the malting plants that recommends the perfect fan speed for the kiln fan. Each batch requires a different fan speed, and MontBlanc recommends this each time in the perfect way.”
Basically, by the way, we reduce the electrical output by lowering fan speeds, and this helps cut emissions,” continues Helmers. “MontBlanc is capable of being installed in any plant. It’s easy to be installed.”
Helmers explained that the equipment manufacturer sees there is a premiumization of beer trends and trends to produce in a more sustainable way, and this is where it takes the solutions like MontBlanc and RimoMalt from big batch sizes to low energy output.
The technologies were displayed during the Drinktec trade show in Munich, Germany.
To underpin its expansion moves, Bühler partnered with Premier Tech from Canada to build a design and manufacturing center in China focusing on industrial flexible packaging solutions, in 2019.
This strategic cooperation resulted in a joint venture for design and manufacturing during 2020, with Bühler focusing on sales of turnkey plants worldwide and Premier Tech on packaging systems in China.
The two companies have started evolving the joint venture in China into a new global partnership for bulk food packaging, where Bühler aims to either access PT’s bagging and palletizing technologies through the joint venture or directly through the latter’s facilities for the high-end food feed and grain markets worldwide.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro-industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE.
