CASTLEMAINE PERKINS - YEAST ROOM
Job No: #2994 #3110
DESCRIPTION
On deciding to further expand existing facilities by building a new yeast room, Castlemaine Perkins sought the assistance of MPA Engineering.
The new yeast room was designed to house eight yeast storage tanks with a combined capacity of over 1480 hectolitres, together with one pitch tank. Each storage tank stores and maintains one yeast culture. When required the yeast is transferred to the pitch tank, and from here it is injected into the wort (unfermented beer) line from the brew house.
This challenging project required MPA Engineering to design, manufacture, install and commission electrical controls for Castlemaine's new yeast room, including PLC software and Honeywell PlantScape SCADA screens, as per the supplied Functional Description. The automation system controls three primary processes within the yeast room - cropping, pitching and cleaning. The automation system implemented by MPA has multiple benefits, including comprehensive fault handling, increased productivity, reduced maintenance and improved product quality.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
In order to control the above processes MPA manufactured and installed a stainless steel, five-tier main switchboard. This unit, placed adjacent to the yeast room, houses the switchgear, S7-316-2DP PLC and air conditioning control panel. Remote I/Os (input/output) are connected to the PLC via Profibus stations in the fermentation area as well as in the new brew house - with over 400 digital points used.
This system is connected to a Honeywell PlantScape SCADA system via TCP/IP Ethernet through fibre optic cables. Essentially the entire brewing area is now linked via Ethernet communication, with every part of the plant transferring information to the server.
The use of fibre optic cabling has optimised the speed of data transfer, insuring that operators have access to current plant status information from any given point.
