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Brewery (Beer Production) Process Modeling and Cycle Time Analysis with
SuperPro Designer
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Demetri Petrides
This is the ReadMe file of a SuperPro Designer example that deals with process modeling, cycle time
analysis and optimization of a generic brewery (beer production). The flowsheet of the process is appended
to the bottom of this document. You may test-drive the model by downloading the functional evaluation
edition of SuperPro Designer from the downloads page of our website (www.intelligen.com). The files of
this example can be found in the Examples \ Food Processing \ Brewery folder. The default installation
path of the SuperPro Designer Examples folder follows below.
C:\ Users \ Public \ Public Documents \ Intelligen \ SuperPro Designer \ v11 \ Process Library \ Examples
If you have any questions about this example and SuperPro Designer in general, please send an email
message to dpetrides@intelligen.com
INTELLIGEN, INC.
Simulation, Design, and Scheduling Tools
For the Process Manufacturing Industries
www.intelligen.com
1. Brewery_v11a.spf: This is the base case of the brewery example. It represents a production line
with a single fermentor and conditioning tank.
2. Brewery_v11b.spf: This is the optimized case of the brewery example. Multiple production
fermentors and conditioning tanks operating in staggered mode (out of phase) reduce the cycle time
of the process and increase its throughput. Heat integration reduces its energy consumption.
The brewery process is described and analyzed as part of the base case. The analysis includes information
on material requirements and process scheduling. The optimized case provides information on cycle time
reduction and throughput increase through the use of multiple equipment items operating in staggered mode.
The results of the economic evaluation correspond to this case. A methodology for sizing of cleaning-in-place
(CIP) skids and water supply systems is provided. The last section of the document, Miscellaneous Modeling
Tips, presents a number of modeling tips and tricks that enhances the modeling experience with SuperPro
Designer.
Process Description
Brewhouse Section For the selected beer recipe, two different carbohydrate sources are employed,
specifically malted barley and corn grits. They are represented with two mixtures whose composition is
shown in Table 1. Information on mixture registration is available in the Miscellaneous Modeling Tips section
of this document, as well as in Chapter 3 of the SuperPro manual.
Proteins 11 8
Fibers 8 10
Fat 2 3
Minerals 1 1
Water 8 5
Initially, 12 metric tons (MT) of malted barley are grinded in Mill-1 and collected in the SB-101 solids bin.
Likewise, 6 MT of corn grits are grinded in Mill-1 and collected in solids bin SB-102. The next step is the
mashing stage. Mashing is the process of mixing the milled barley malt and cereal adjuncts (corn grits) with
hot water and letting the mixture stand at an appropriate temperature, while the enzymes degrade the
proteins and starch to yield the malt extract (i.e., the wort) that is used as the substrate for fermentation. The
corn grits are mashed-in first because of the higher temperature that is required for the gelatinization of corn
starch. The contents of SB-102 are transferred into the mash vessel (MK-1) where they are mixed with hot
water. A small quantity of barley malt (around 20% by weight of corn grits) is also added at this stage. After
the completion of the adjunct mashing stage, sparge water of ambient temperature is added to the vessel to
cool down the contents. The malted barley is then transferred into the mashing vessel and is mashed
according to the following schedule:
• Heat to 45°C and hold for 15 min. This stage represents the proteolysis reaction where the protein
content is extracted from the malt and transferred into the wort.
• Heat to 65°C and hold for 180 min. This stage represents the saccharification reaction where the
starch is broken down to sugars which are dissolved in the wort. The conversion of starch into
sugars is represented by the following mass stoichiometry:
In this case, Glucose represents a variety of fermentable and non fermentable sugars that are
extracted from the malt into the wort (e.g., maltose, dextrins, maltotriose, glucose, fructose and
sucrose). The extent of the reaction is set to 90% with respect to starch to indicate that, on average,
90% of the starch contained in the barley malt and corn grits is extractable.
• Heat to 75°C and hold for 10 min in order to terminate enzyme activity reduce the viscosity and
promote the coagulation of particles, thereby improving the fluidity of the mash.
Next, the mash is transferred to the lauter tun (LT-1) where the separation of the wort from the solids is
performed. The solid-liquid separation is represented in SuperPro Designer by a filtration operation
accompanied by a recycling of the wort until a desired clarity is achieved. In the end, the solids bed that
remains in the lauter tun is washed with sparge water in order to increase the yield of the process.
same vessel (MK-1). This is indicated by the icon. Specification of equipment sharing by multiple
procedures is explained in the Miscellaneous Modeling Tips section of this document. Before the
fermentation stage, the hops and hot trub that are formed during wort boiling are removed by sedimentation
in a Whirlpool (WhP-1).
Fermentation and Aging Section The clarified wort from the whirlpool is cooled down to 18°C in Chiller-1
and then oxygenated in MX-101 to a dissolved oxygen concentration of 0.02 g/L. The oxygenated wort is
transferred to a fermentor (FR-101) where brewing yeast is pitched to a concentration of 1 g/L
(corresponding to approximately 6x109 cells/L). Yeast pitching is represented with a Pull-In operation
(consult the Miscellaneous Modeling Tips section at the end of the document for additional information on the
subject).
105.5 Glucose ➔ 5.2 Water + 49 Ethyl Alcohol + 46.3 Carbon Dioxide + 5 Yeast
The stoichiometric coefficients used in the reaction have been taken from the literature (Charles Bamforth,
2003), with a slight adjustment that accounts for water production and the fact that Glucose represents a
variety of sugars. The extent of the fermentation reaction is set to 88% to indicate that only a portion of the
sugars contained in the wort are actually fermentable. Fermentation lasts for 5 days and the temperature is
maintained at 22°C by flowing chilled water in the jacket of the fermentor. After the completion of
fermentation, the immature (green) beer is cooled to 4°C in Chiller-2 during its transfer to the conditioning
tank CT-101. The fermentor is cleaned using both caustic (NaOH) and acid (H 3PO4) solutions. Information on
the specification of cleaning mixtures is available in the Miscellaneous Modeling Tips section at the end of
this document.
The conditioning and aging of the beer in CT-101 takes about a week. Next, the beer is diluted with water to
5% alcohol by volume prior to filtration in PFF-101. Beer dilution is represented with a custom mixer (MX-
102). The specified output stream alcohol concentration of 4% w/w is approximately equivalent to 5% alcohol
by volume. The plate and frame filter (PFF-101) removes all the suspended solids.
Filling and Packaging Section For this example, it is assumed that 20% of the produced beer is packaged
in 50L kegs while the remaining 80% is bottled in 0.5L glass bottles. The beer of the keg-line is pasteurized
in bulk form while the pasteurization of the bottled beer is performed inside the bottles. The filled and
pasteurized bottles are labeled and then packed in dozen-bottle cartons.
Material Requirements
Table 2 displays the material requirements in kg/batch for the base case (file Brew8_5a.spf). The output of a
single batch is approximately equal to 126,000 L of beer. The table below is an extract from the Streams &
Material kg/batch
Water 211,828
Barley Malt 12,000
Hops 150
Corn Grits 6000
Brewing Yeast 106
NaOH (2.5% w/w) 20,084
H3PO4 (0.2M) 19,971
Aluminum 1,506
Glass 20,081
Paper 355
Total 292,080
Process Scheduling
The operations Gantt chart presents an overview of the entire schedule for a single or multiple batches. It
can be generated by selecting ChartsGantt ChartsOperations GC. Figure 1 displays an extract of the
operations Gantt chart for the base case file, illustrating the scheduling of operations in procedures P-1 to P-
6.
SuperPro can export its scheduling data to MS Project by selecting FileExport to MS Project. Consult the
SuperPro manual or its Help facility for information on the two exporting options. Likewise, SuperPro can
export its recipe data to SchedulePro by selecting FileExport to SchedulePro’s Recipe DB. SchedulePro
is a resource management, production planning and scheduling tool marketed by Intelligen.
The Gantt chart enables users to visualize in detail the execution of a batch process. It also facilitates editing
of batch recipes. Double clicking on any of its bars brings up the dialog of the corresponding entity (e.g.,
operation, procedure, recipe, etc.). The simulation calculations can be redone and the chart updated by
As mentioned in the previous section, the solids milling equipment (Mill-1) is shared by procedures P-1 and
P-3. In order for this sharing to be feasible it must be specified that the two procedures do not require a
simultaneous use of the equipment. Indeed, as shown in Figure 1, the Grinding operation in procedure P-3 is
scheduled to start after the end of the Grinding operation in procedure P-1. This is done by visiting the
scheduling tab of the Grinding operation in procedure P-3, selecting the Start Time specification Relative to
Another Operation in Another Procedure,and assigning P-1(in Mill-1) as the procedure and Grind-1 as the
operation in the respective drop-down lists (see Figure 2).
It is also possible to open the dialog for a procedure or an operation by double-clicking on the respective bar
in the Gantt chart.
An additional scheduling constraint that must be satisfied is that the Transfer to Lauter Tun operation (in
procedure P-5) and the Receive Mash (filtration) operation (in procedure P-6) must have an equal duration.
This is necessary in order to ensure that the transfer to the Lauter tun is not performed neither too fast nor
too slow relatively to the filtration operation which is the slowest. In other words, we want to set the duration
of the Transfer to Lauter Tun operation as a slave of the Receive Mash operation. This can be done by
visiting the Oper. Cond’s tab of the Transfer to Lauter Tun operation and setting its duration to be specified
by a Master/Slave Relationship, with the master being the Receive Mash operation in procedure P-6 (see
Figure 3)
The Equipment Occupancy chart displays information on equipment occupancy as a function of time for a
single or multiple batches and it enables users to readily visualize cycle time bottlenecks. The chart is
generated by selecting ChartsEquipment OccupancyMultiple Batches. Figure 4 displays the
Equipment Occupancy chart for four consecutive batches (to adjust the number of batches, right click in the
open area of the chart and select Set Number of Batches). Under the conditions of this scenario (base
case), the cycle time (i.e., the time between consecutive batches) is 8.57 days, which allows for a maximum
of 37 batches per year and an annual throughput of 4,670,000 L of filtered beer. This information is also
available by selecting TasksRecipe Scheduling Information (see Figure 5). Through this dialog it is also
possible to adjust various top-level scheduling parameters, such as the number of batches per year, the
recipe cycle time, etc.
GT-1
WhP-1
Chiller-1
MX-102
FR-1 Legend
Chiller-2 B# 1
B# 2
CT-101
B# 3
MX-101 B# 4
PFF-101
FBT-1
PZ-101
KF-1
Chiller-3
BF-1
GBX-101
LB-101
BX-101
h 96 192 288 384 480 576 672 768 864 960 1056 1152
day 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
Figure 4 The equipment occupancy chart for 4 consecutive batches of the base-case process
Figure 6 Addition of stagger mode equipment for the conditioning tank CT-101
Notice that when debottlenecking a batch process, the extra units of equipment should be added to the
equipment that is the scheduling bottleneck. Once an extra conditioning tank (i.e., CT-102) is introduced, the
bottleneck is ‘shifted’ to the fermentor FR-1. Consequently, an extra fermentor (i.e., FR-2) is specified to
CIP-Skid-1
CIP-Skid-2
Mill-1
SB-101
WT-1
MK-1
SB-102
LT-1
GT-1
WhP-1
HX-1
Chiller-1
MX-102
FR-1
FR-2 Legend
Main Equipment & CIP Skids
FR-3 B# 1
FR-4 B# 2
B# 3
FR-5
B# 4
FR-6 B# 5
Chiller-2 B# 6
B# 7
CT-101
B# 8
CT-102 B# 9
CT-103 B# 10
CT-104 B# 11
B# 12
CT-105 B# 13
CT-106 B# 14
CT-107 B# 15
B# 16
CT-108
B# 17
CT-109 B# 18
CT-110
MX-101
PFF-101
FBT-1
FBT-2
PZ-101
KF-1
Chiller-3
BF-1
GBX-101
LB-101
BX-101
h 48 96 144 192 240 288 336 384 432 480 528 576 624 672 720 768 816 864
day 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38
Figure 7 depicts the equipment occupancy chart for a process with 6 fermentors (FR-1 to FR-6), 10
conditioning tanks (CT-101 to CT-110) and 2 filtered beer tanks (FBT-1 and FBT-2) operating in stagger
mode (file Brew8_5b.spf).
FR-3 B# 1
FR-4 B# 2
B# 3
FR-5
B# 4
FR-6 B# 5
Chiller-2 B# 6
B# 7
CT-101
B# 8
CT-102 B# 9
CT-103 B# 10
CT-104 B# 11
B# 12
CT-105 B# 13
CT-106 B# 14
CT-107 B# 15
B# 16
CT-108
B# 17
CT-109 B# 18
CT-110
MX-101
PFF-101
FBT-1
FBT-2
PZ-101
KF-1
Chiller-3
BF-1
GBX-101
LB-101
BX-101
h 48 96 144 192 240 288 336 384 432 480 528 576 624 672 720 768 816 864
day 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38
Figure 7 The equipment occupancy chart for 18 consecutive batches of the advanced-case
In this case the Minimum Cycle Time of the process has been reduced to 20.93 hours (see Figure 8). The
Recipe Cycle Time has been set to 24 h resulting in 315 batches per year and an annual throughput of
39,758,000 L of filtered beer. This represents a throughput increase of 750% compared to the base case.
In this example it was assumed that the brewery is dedicated to manufacturing a single product throughout
the year. In reality, most breweries are multi-product facilities that campaign production. Modeling, capacity
analysis, production planning and scheduling of multi-product facilities can be handled with SchedulePro
(Intelligen’s production planning and scheduling tool). Functional evaluation versions of both SuperPro
Designer and SchedulePro can be downloaded from www.intelligen.com.
Energy Integration
An additional feature of the optimized case (file Brewery_v10b.spf) is the energy integration. More
specifically, the water that is used to pre-cool the wort coming out of the whirlpool is collected in a vessel
(WT-1) and utilized for the mashing of the malt and for sparging in the lauter tun. The water is retained in the
vessel for a substantial period of time resulting in heat losses to the environment (a 10 oC temperature drop).
The representation of heat losses in a vessel is described in detail in the Miscellaneous Modeling Tips
section at the end of the document.
Cost Analysis
SuperPro Designer performs thorough cost analysis calculations, estimating Capital (CAPEX) as well as
Operating (OPEX) costs. The results are presented in three different reports, namely the Economic
Evaluation Report (EER), the Cash Flow Analysis Report (CFR), and the Itemized Cost Report (ICR). Table
3 displays the Executive Summary of the Economic Evaluation Report (it corresponds to the Brew8_5b.spf
case file) which can be generated by selecting ReportsEconomic Evaluation (EER). It is possible to
specify the desired format (e.g., PDF, RTF, XLS, etc.) of any report by selecting ReportsOptions. The
total capital investment for a plant of this capacity (39,758,000 L of filtered beer) is around $60.9 million while
the estimated annual operating cost is $24.2 million, which translates to a unit cost of $0.61/kg of filtered
beer. The numbers for the calculation of the Return-On-Investment, Payback Time, etc., are based on a
selling price of $6 per twelve half-liter-beer-bottle cartons and of $20 per 50 L beer kegs. These prices can
be specified through the Stream Classification window available from TasksStream Classification.
Figure 9 displays the annual operating cost breakdown, which is a part of the EER. As can be seen through
the chart, the facility-dependent cost is the most significant expense, accounting for 44% of the overall
operating cost. This cost item accounts for the depreciation and maintenance of the facility and other
overhead expenses. Labor is in the second position, accounting for 27% of the overall cost. The cost of raw
materials is the third most important, accounting for 21% of the overall cost. To include such charts in the
EER, visit the ReportsOptions and activate the Include Charts option on the lower left corner of the
dialog.
Figure 9 The annual operating cost breakdown pie chart of the EER
The Cash Flow Analysis report includes a detailed financial analysis for the entire life of the project. It
provides information on the Net Present Value (NPV) of the project for three different discount interests and
the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is calculated and reported based on cash flows before and after taxes.
Table 4 Cost analysis breakdown per section and per item ($1000/year)
Lab/ Waste
Section Materials Facility Labor Utilities TOTAL %
QC/QA Trt/Dsp
Brewhouse 1,513 3,120 359 54 190 78 5,315 21.91
Fermentation 993 6,416 6,117 918 600 0 15,044 62.02
Equipment Utilization
The Equipment Utilization chart of SuperPro facilitates throughput analysis and debottlenecking studies. It
can be generated by selecting ChartThroughput Analysis ChartUtilization Factors. This chart
displays by default equipment that is in Rating Mode (i.e., equipment whose size has been specified by the
user). Figure 10 depicts this chart for the optimized case (file Brew8_5b.spf). The cyan bars represent size
utilization for equipment with storage capacity or throughput utilization for throughput-type of equipment. The
orange bars represent time utilization and the magenta bars represent the combined utilization (size
utilization x time utilization). Fermentor FR-1 is identified as the most likely throughput bottleneck because it
has the highest combined utilization.
A report with the necessary information for CIP skid sizing can be generated by selecting ReportsCIP
Skid (CSR). The report presents a separate table for each CIP skid with information on volumes and flow
rates of materials required for the cleaning steps of a particular CIP operation utilizing a specific skid (see
Table ). It must be highlighted that the maximum volume is a useful parameter for calculating the CIP skid
tank size, while the maximum flow rate serves as a base for sizing the CIP skid pumps.
Notice that in this example, the caustic and acid wash solutions are recirculated three times and
consequently, the total required volume of the acid and caustic wash solutions is equal to:
CIP-Skid-2
Main Volume Flowrate Duration Recirculation
Procedure Operation CIP-Step
Equipment (L) (L/h) (min) Times
P-19 FBT-1 CIP-1 Caustic Wash 4,341.14 26,046.82 30.00 3.00
P-19 FBT-1 CIP-1 Acid Wash 4,341.14 26,046.82 30.00 3.00
P-21 KF-1 CIP-1 Caustic Wash 2,000.00 12,000.00 30.00 3.00
P-21 KF-1 CIP-1 Acid Wash 2,000.00 12,000.00 30.00 3.00
P-23 BF-1 CIP-1 Caustic Wash 2,000.00 12,000.00 30.00 3.00
P-23 BF-1 CIP-1 Acid Wash 2,000.00 12,000.00 30.00 3.00
Max. Values 4,341.14 26,046.82
A receiving storage unit may be used to receive the material of output streams and the waste generated by
cleaning-in-place (CIP) operations. To associate an output stream to a storage unit, right click on the stream
to access the context menu, select the option Assign Receiving Storage Unit and select the desired storage
unit from the drop down menu (see Figure 12 Assignment of an output stream to the receiving unit
Liquid Waste Tank.
To send the output material of a CIP operation to a receiving unit, open its dialog and select the desired unit
from the drop down list in the Waste frame on the bottom of the Oper. Cond’s tab (see Figure 13). When a
receiving tank is selected, the waste is automatically classified according to the type of waste which has
been defined for it (e.g. aqueous waste, organic waste, etc.). If the Remove Contents as Waste with
Disposed Agent box is checked for a CIP step, any material present in the equipment prior to the CIP
operation is removed as CIP waste.
In the optimized case (file Brewery_v10b.spf), the Trub stream of the Whirpool (P-9) and all waste generated
by the CIP operations of the various procedures was assigned to the Liquid Waste Tank receiving unit. The
inventory, charge and discharge rates and times of storage units can be viewed by selecting
ChartsStorage UnitsReceiving InventoryMultiple Batches.
The properties of storage units can also be accessed through the “SUs” tab of the Process Explorer pane.
The Process Explorer pane is displayed by selecting ViewProcess Explorer or by clicking on the Process
Explorer button ( ) on the main toolbar.
This chart is useful for sizing water systems during the design of new facilities. A water system typically
consists of a line that generates purified water (e.g., a sequence of media filtration, activated carbon, ion
Figure 14 Portion of the water consumption chart for 24 consecutive batches (6-h averaging)
Figure 15 displays the inventory profile of water in the surge tank (dark lines) for a tank size of 115,000 kg
and a purification line capacity of 20,000 kg/h (as indicated by the findings of Figure 14). The purification line
is turned on when the level in the tank falls below 40% and it remains on until the tank is full. The operation
rate and frequency of the purification line is depicted by the light blue step-function lines. This chart can be
generated by selecting ChartsMaterialsEntering, InventoryMultiple Batches. The tank size, line
capacity, opening inventory and on/off triggers can be specified by clicking on the Supply Info button (the
one with the truck icon). Obviously, there are an infinite number of combinations of tank size and purification
line capacity that constitute a solution. The larger the purification line capacity, the smaller the required tank
size. However, it should be noted that combinations that involve large line capacity and small surge tank size
lead to high on/off operation frequency for the purification line which in turn leads to wearing of equipment.
The icon that appears under an equipment icon in the flowsheet indicates that two (or more) procedures
are sharing the same equipment. For example, in the brewery flowsheet it has been specified that
procedures P-1 and P-3 share the same grinder (Mill-1), while procedures P-5 and P-8 share vessel MK-1.
The assignment of shared equipment between procedures is created by right-clicking on the procedure icon;
selecting Equipment Data and choosing the equipment to be shared from the selection list (see Figure 16).
Figure 17 Specification of the initial concentration for the charging (Pull-In) of yeast in the fermentor
Such estimations can be improved by modifying the Default Volumetric Coefficient of selected solutes
through the Physical (Constant) tab of the Pure Component Properties dialog which is displayed by
selecting TasksPure ComponentsRegister, Edit/View Properties. (see Figure 19). A value of 0.55 for
Glucose leads to a density of 1,060 g/L for the fermentor wort stream (S-120) which is in agreement with
literature data for mixtures of 11 Plato units (11% w/w sugar content).
In order to create a new mixture (e.g., a 0.2M H3PO4) with a desired composition select TasksStock
MicturesRegister, Edit/View Properties. Click on the Add a New Stock Mixture button and in the
dialog that appears, fill in the desired name of the new mixture (the Trade Name and Local Name fields will
be automatically completed) and click OK (see Figure 20).
Next, highlight the newly created (0.2M H3PO4 ) mixture and click on the View/Edit the selected stock mixture
properties button . Switch to the composition tab and add the required ingredients of the mixture (Water
and Phosphoric Acid) by selecting them from the list of available components and clicking on the add
To specify the desired concentration click on the Target Concentration Calculator button and in
the dialog that appears check the concentration Set by User box for Phosphoric Acid, set its concentration to
0.2 M and click on the Calculate button (see Figure 22). Finally, click OK and the new calculated
concentration will be automatically assigned to the newly created mixture.
the destination procedure and click on the Show/Hide Operation Clipboard button . Select the
relevant procedure and operation to be copied from the drop down lists and finally click on the Add a Copy
or Insert a Copy button (see Figure 23). This is a useful utility for initialization of CIP, reaction and other
complex operations. Copying of operations within a procedure is accomplished using the Copy / Paste /
Insert buttons on the bottom of the Operation Sequence frame of the same dialog (see Figure 23). Copying
of entire procedures in the context of a single or multiple SuperPro files is also possible. Please note that if
you copy procedures from one file into another, the application will create a union of materials, heat transfer
agents, power, and labor resources in the destination file.
REFERENCES
[1] Charles Bamforth, “BEER – Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing,” Oxford University Press, 2003.