Atlas Copco

Midlands brewery makes major energy savings
July 14th 2006

When it comes to the energy-efficient supply of oil-free, low pressure air for critical process operations, industry in general and the brewing industry in particular looks no further than Atlas Copco's Z-range of positive displacement blower units and centrifugal blowers.

Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries PLC is the UK's leading independent brewing and pub retailing business. It is one of the top 300 quoted companies in the UK and operates three breweries - Park Brewery in Wolverhampton (brewing Banks's, Hanson's and Mansfield beers), Marston's Brewery at Burton-on- Trent, and Jennings Brewery at Cockermouth in the Lake District.

It was the pneumatic conveying of what is left over in the mash tuns after the wort is run off the spent grains, sold for cattle feed that was the subject of an AIRScan investigation by Atlas Copco authorised distributor, AQ Central. Its aim was to improve flow rates and to provide energy savings for the W&DB's 'Pneumaveyor' system that delivered the spent grains to a storage silo, prior to transportation.

Initially, the air supply for this process relied on 7bar plant air from existing compressors utilising a control unit to limit the conveyor air to approximately 2bar, via a receiver, otherwise the grains would not flow satisfactorily. But this was a highly uneconomic procedure in terms of energy efficiency. The solution in terms of sizing, both of flow and pressure, determined from the AirScan survey, suggested increased diameter pipework and the installation of a dedicated Z blower.

Atlas Copco's ZL1400 low noise, low vibration, low pulsation, positive displacement rotary blower is designed with trusted technology to deliver reliable quality air 24 hours a day.

According to Colin Walton, Senior Engineer at Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries: "The new system has overcome any blockage problems experienced in the past and with an oil-free operation there is no risk of product contamination. But, better still, we are now making substantial energy savings as much as 75%. That makes a major contribution to our bottom line."

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