The Netherlands: Grolsch uses state-of-the-art technologies at Enschede located brewery

Dutch brewer Grolsch has fitted out its new state-of-the-art brewery at Enschede in Holland with a range of flowmeters from Krohne, according to a Krohne Company release on June 07. The company is using Krohne variable area, electromagnetic and Coriolis mass flowmeters to provide accurate, reliable measurement across its production processes. The new Grolsch brewery replaced two existing breweries in one of the biggest investment projects in the eastern Netherlands for many years.

The company wanted to achieve significant gains in efficiency through using state-of-the-art technologies to integrate and automate production processes. The new brewery is capable of producing four million hectolitres of beer each year.

Grolsch has installed over 300 Krohne electromagnetic flowmeters in the brewery, the majority of which are the Optiflux 6000.

These are being used in a variety of production processes including fresh water and cooling circuits as well as within purification plants. The Optimass 7000 series Coriolis Mass flowmeter is used for more demanding applications, for example where materials being measured have no conductivity or have high viscosity. These include dosing liquid sugar and hops and for measuring carbon dioxide levels in the cold recovery system.

The liquid hop extract is maintained at 45C and has a density of approximately 1.3 kg/l and a viscosity of several thousand mPAS. Its high viscosity means that the process operates at very low flow rates.

The Optimass is ideally suited to this type of application. Its single, straight tube design means it does not require a flow splitter, is self draining and can be sterilised. There is also minimal pressure loss across the instrument.

The Optimass is capable of high measurement accuracy, delivering a measurement accuracy of 0.1 per cent for fluids and 0.5 per cent with gas. Test measurements run by Grolsch, however, show that the filling accuracy for 8 kg batches of hops was better than 0.1 per cent.

As well as measuring mass flow, the Optimass is capable of measuring current density and volume flow rates of materials. It is also possible to calculate parameters such as temperature and to derive values from the density, such as Brix or Plato.

The Krohne H 250 variable area flowmeter is used in applications to measure nitrogen in substances as well as in the CO2 recovery system. Krohne flowmeters were also installed at the older Grolsch breweries.

Gerard Groote Punt, head of ELTD, WTB and utilities at Grolsch, said: “Given the positive experience we have had with Krohne measurement technology in the past, it was an obvious decision for us to equip our new brewery with flowmeters by Krohne. Flow measurement in a brewery is essential for the smooth operation of the plant. Krohne measurement technology means that we can run the brewery of the future, today.”

The Krohne instruments are fitted with Profibus and communicate with the Grolsch ProLeit process control system. This controls the entire brewing process including the silo system, brewhouse, fermenting and stock cellar, filtration and the sewage works.

Royal Grolsch N.V. is a listed company whose rich traditions date back to 1615. Grolsch has its origins in the east of the Netherlands. Grolsch has concentrated all Dutch brewery activities at a new brewery, at an ideal location south-west of Enschede (Boekelo). The original brewery in Groenlo (since 1615) and that in Enschede-North (since 1895) has now been closed. The new brewery was officially opened on 7 April 2004.

The annual capacity of the new brewery (brewing, fermentation, lagering and filtration of beer) is some 3.2 million hectolitres. The annual capacity for processing (filling) is higher, if the usual division of demand over the various packaging alternatives is retained. Because the brewing unit has an annual capacity of 4.0 million hectolitres, the annual capacity can be increased to this level for all process units quite simply, by upscaling other processes such as fermentation, lagering and filtration. Enough land is available to expand in the future to an annual capacity of 6.0 million hectolitres of beer, while retaining the present ideal layout.

Krohne owns more than 80 years of experience in industrial measurement.

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