Digital-based collection and monitoring of energy data: Rudi Schmid, Endress+Hauser sales engineer (left) and Silvio DiTano, Hofbräu Munich, head of electronics (middle).
The beer, which is enjoyed by 1.3 million visitors a year at the “world’s most famous tavern”, the Hofbräuhaus situated at the “Platzl” in the heart of the cosmopolitan city of Munich, has travelled a mere 11 kilometers from the brewery to the tap, where around 16,000 hectoliters are quaffed annually. The remaining 325,000 hectoliters have a significantly longer road to travel before the customer has the chance to enjoy a sip of the Bavarian way of life. Reducing the amount of diesel used by the delivery trucks through a route optimization plan is one of the company’s 10 environmental goals. Significantly more energy is utilized during the brewing process however. Here the state-owned brewery wants to sink the specific heat consumption by 4 percent and production-generated CO2 emissions as much as 30 percent by the end of 2019. Hofbräuhaus is the first German brewery to analyze its own climate emissions. An environment protection representative manages, documents and evaluates all of the individual measures using a complex environmental management system. One of the key elements of the concept is energy monitoring.
Automated data integration
Silvio DiTano, head of electronics, has been familiar with Endress+Hauser instruments for more than 20 years. And this was the first project in which an automation concept for the integration of the data had to be developed in addition to the configuration of the instruments. This concept is designed to ensure the seamless collection of energy utilization data, integrate it into the brewery’s existing process control system and forward it to the existing software platform for analysis and reporting. There was also a desire to provide mobile access to the data. DiTano worked for one day and one evening on the solution with the support of Endress+Hauser sales engineer Rudi Schmid. The heart of the solution is the Memograph M, a data manager that serves as an interface between the field instruments and the process control level and supports all common field buses. The Memograph M forwards the actual sensor measurement values to the control system via PROFINET.
Thanks to its mathematical functions, Memograph M can directly calculate the amount of heat, which it then sends to the software platform via Ethernet TC/IP. Calculating the amount of heat on-site, such as the quantity of steam while taking into account the process pressure and temperature, eliminates potential sources of errors in the energy monitoring system.
What really makes the data manager and logger Industry 4.0-ready however is the integrated web server, which gives operators remote access at the field instrument level and provides a convenient way to configure parameters or store data.
Silvio DiTano’s desire for mobile access to the energy data monitoring system is fulfilled by the FieldXpert. This robust industry-scale tablet PC features a preinstalled device driver library for all important protocols and automatically detects instruments with a click and connects to all Endress+Hauser instruments via WLAN or Bluetooth. That means it can be used to track energy utilization from anywhere on the grounds of the plant, display trends or launch error analyses.
With the FieldXpert, operators can track energy utilization or launch error analyses from anywhere.
Energy monitoring
To ensure 100 percent monitoring of each batch, every vat and heat exchanger is equipped with energy meters. The mixer taps that temper the water for the malt grinders and the straining vats are also equipped with energy meters. Even utilization of the seal water is constantly monitored. Added to that are measurement points in the steam boilers and the water source. A thermal flowmeter monitors the amount of air pressure required for the pneumatic transport of the spent grain. Altogether, 31 flowmeters, seven pressure sensors and 16 temperature sensors collect data related to water, steam and air pressure utilization.
Three Memograph M devices collect this data via 4-20mA or impulse signals. “With such a large number of measurement points, the Memograph M solution is the most cost-effective and simplest way to integrate the data and monitor the energy utilization,” explains Silvio DiTano. “Endress+Hauser carried out the three-day commissioning, but we took care of the water source on our own,” adds DiTano.
Installation and expansion
The plant manufacturer, which installed and converted the energy measurement points, delivered the Memographs as precabled DIN-rail mounts inside a switch cabinet. The well-thought-out concept drew the attention of the manufacturer, which even sent one of its IT specialists to share experiences. With the installation of the system in the brewery, the first phase of the project is now complete. The next step involves analyzing the data that has been collected up to this point in order to uncover further savings potential. It’s conceivable that the energy monitoring system will eventually be expanded. What’s certain is that equipping the system with Industry 4.0 components was the right decision in order to be able to easily integrate it into the existing infrastructure and have mobile access to the data at any time and from anywhere. State-owned Hofbräuhaus is thus in a good position to stake its claim as a role model when it comes to both climate protection and digitalization. But when it comes to imitators, one should at least think about it over a glass of good beer.
Quote from Silvio DiTano:
“With the FieldXpert I have simple and fast mobile access to the current energy utilization data from anywhere, plus I can analyze trends and configure the instruments. Combined with the Memograph, we can exploit the advantages of digitalization down to the field instrument level.”
For further information, please visit www.endress.com
