Annual Buyers Guide

Focus on: Drives, Motors & Controls Process, Controls & Plant the most of the insights derived from OPM. It is through this understanding that operators can have a clear understanding of performance, day-by-day and hour-by-hour. A mix of historical, real-time and predicted performance indicators can support decision making and speedier responses to unusual conditions. Many food and beverage plants opt for custom-made modular solutions that are embedded with automation and operational technology. For instance, trusted automated elements like eddy current separators can separate non-ferrous materials from waste with a powerful magnetic field. Or, electromagnets can be used to recover tins and cans in combination with MESs. Other modular approaches include fully automated material recovery facilities (MRFs). They are found to improve productivity and yield better quality recyclate while also allowing for greater flexibility to grow. Some operators regard the ideal as being an MRF that operates independently of human interaction. That said, the human element should not be completely disregarded in meeting waste management targets. Some areas of the recycling process are still a long way from automation. For example, the pre-sorting and recovering of valuable materials, e.g. plastic, from municipal solid waste is still performed manually; although the process can involve cutting edge analysis equipment, like optical sorters, further down the line. Europe’s largest anaerobic digestion plant In the UK, AD technology is embraced as a valuable source of renewable energy, particularly for the purposes of converting waste food matter into bio methane and maximising the efficiency of generating gas from food waste. AD is the breaking down of organic matter, in the absence of oxygen, with micro-organisms called methanogens. A digestion plant is very much like a human stomach and relies on a constant stream of food waste to keep going. This waste is broken down to produce energy- rich biogas — or methane plus carbon dioxide — and digestate. Otherwise the bacteria which breaks down the waste, dies. The UK’s first AD plant is located at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, and operated by the waste management firm Biffa. Biffa says that the 120,000 tonnes per year capacity facility, which cost £24 mn to build, is the largest of its kind in Europe. It mainly treats commercial and industrial food and organic waste from the nearby Sainsburys — specifically in the form of unsold food — and Bakkavor. Biogas can then be used as a heating fuel for the plant itself or be converted into electricity by using a combined heat and power (CHP) unit. Biogas is converted into biomethane or bio compressed natural gas (CNG) for use as vehicle fuel. It is also used to generate green energy that is then exported to the National Grid. Meanwhile, digestate can be used as a soil conditioner. Those are just some examples of how AD is fast emerging as a plausible way for food manufacturing plants to manage organic waste. There would be no food waste, in an ideal world. Nevertheless, whether it’s through bespoke modular IoT solutions or inventive recycling technologies like AD, the continued marriage of processes and technologies in food and beverage plants can do their part to ensure that the $270bn goal to reduce food waste by 2050 is not a dream, but a reality. www.fulton.co.uk +44 (0)117 972 3322 sales@fulton.co.uk The World’s Best Steam Boiler Home of the award-winning EXPERTLY PACKAGED SOLUTIONS Benefits of Fulton’s skid mounted and plant room heat transfer solutions include: · · · · · · · · · Higher productivity Reduced construction timescales and year-round construction (not constrained by weather) Increased build and quality assurance Design flexibility Minimised on-site disruption Reduced wastage Improved Health & Safety Built in a controlled environment with designers and fabricators under one roof High cost benefit against site work