Remote automatic process control systems for small breweries

小型啤酒厂的远程自动过程控制系统

• 批准号: 478231-2015
• 负责人: Zhao, Lian
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: Ryerson University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=579382
• 关键词: Remote; automatic; process; control; systems

Our industry partner, Amber Brewery, has been making small-batch craft beer in the GTA for 17 years. Amber Brewery is dedicated to creating the most drinkable craft beers at the lowest prices possible. Its Toronto House beer is the result of over 20 years of testing and carefully perfecting a clean-tasting lager. In the brewing process, each brew has a primary fermentation of 7 days at 9°C and is then aged between 5-6 weeks at 5°C before undergoing clean filtration. Keeping the process precise to guarantee the quality of every batch is of paramount importance to the company. Through the years, all these steps have been conducted manually: staff are required to carefully monitor the temperature, humidity, and level of fermentation for each brew and switch on/off various valves to maintain quality control. In this proposed research we aim to develop a remote process control system to advance Amber Brewery's methods with digital technologies. A local computer will be configured as the control center, and other computers or smart phones will be able to remotely access this control center to adjust an array of valves, establishing a significantly improved production process. This will be a significant step towards process automation in the craft brewery industry, reducing human errors and effectively boosting product quality. Even though some automation systems are available in the market - e.g., Siemens's Braumat 7.0, Proleit's Brewmaxx, etc. - these systems are designed for large breweries that are able to incur a high design cost and high maintenance cost, which is not feasible for small companies like Amber Brewery. In this project, we aim to design a cost-effective automation system for smaller breweries. There is a considerable market for this proposed technology, as there are over 50 small craft breweries just in Greater Toronto Area (GTA) that could benefit from this product.

我们的行业合作伙伴Amber Brewery在大多伦多地区生产小批量精酿啤酒已有17年。Amber Brewery致力于以最低的价格生产最适合饮用的精酿啤酒。其多伦多屋啤酒是超过20年的测试和精心完善一个干净的品尝啤酒的结果。在酿造过程中，每种啤酒在9 °C下进行7天的初级发酵，然后在5 °C下老化5-6周，然后进行清洁过滤。保持工艺精确以保证每批产品的质量对公司来说至关重要。多年来，所有这些步骤都是手动进行的：工作人员需要仔细监测每次酿造的温度，湿度和发酵水平，并打开/关闭各种阀门以保持质量控制。 在这项研究中，我们的目标是开发一个远程过程控制系统，以推进琥珀啤酒的方法与数字技术。一台本地计算机将被配置为控制中心，其他计算机或智能手机将能够远程访问该控制中心，以调整一系列阀门，建立一个显着改进的生产过程。这将是精酿啤酒行业迈向过程自动化的重要一步，减少人为错误并有效提高产品质量。 即使一些自动化系统在市场上是可用的-例如，西门子的Braumat 7.0、Proleit的Brewmaxx等--这些系统专为大型啤酒厂设计，这些啤酒厂的设计成本和维护成本很高，而这对于琥珀啤酒厂这样的小公司来说是不可行的。在这个项目中，我们的目标是为小型啤酒厂设计一个具有成本效益的自动化系统。这项拟议的技术有相当大的市场，因为仅在大多伦多地区（GTA）就有50多家小型手工酿酒厂可以从这种产品中受益。