Annual Buyers Guide

Tobius Antius, CEO of food process automation company Novotek AB, explains how, with automation and systems, manufacturers can help to minimise the creation of food waste in manufacturing. Managing food waste A ccording to a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), food waste will be a $1.5 tn problem by the year 2050. But it’s not all bad news. The same report says that better supply chain infrastructure and efficiency could reduce this figure by $270 bn within the same timeframe. How can food waste be reduced at the manufacturing stage of the supply chain? In an ideal world, there would be no food waste and manufacturers would be able to derive a perfect yield of production, relative to the ingredients put in. Nevertheless, food waste is an issue; albeit one that automation and optimisation technologies can help solve, including by maximising the efficiency of generating gas from food waste. The food and beverage industries were late to adopt automation and plant IT. Yet progress manufacturing IT investment offers long-term value. However, for other food plant managers, the learning curve of onboarding automation systems can be attributed to a lack of defined purpose. In other words, managing waste through automation is about more than just installing new equipment. Food and beverage companies instead need to take an intelligent approach to deriving energising gas from food waste. Customised modular approach Novotek has found that solutions like Predix OPM allow firms to conduct analysis of the complex mix of factors that affect gas production. Through this analysis, they can learn the best ways to run digestion processes with different blends of food waste. With SCADA systems, operations can make Process, Controls & Plant Focus on: Drives, Motors & Controls has been made, and 50% of Europe’s recycling plants now feature automated processes. Meanwhile, a recent report by PwC claims that, in the waste management sector alone, 62.6% of jobs have a chance of being automated by the year 2030 — the highest percentage in any sector. An upside is that quality and effectiveness of automation in the food industry is far higher than in other prominent industries. But the downside is that many food plant managers are still experiencing a learning curve with new technology. One way to address this is with dedicated technical support of automation systems. Technical support programs are often overlooked, or disregarded to some extent, by food manufacturers who consider it to be an additional service. In reality, it’s arguably the most effective way of ensuring your 22 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk Annual Buyers’ Guide 2020