Kohei Yamada (1); (1) Suntory Beer Limited, Gunma, Japan
Technical Session 15: World Class Manufacturing
Tuesday, August 16 • 9:45–11:30 a.m.
Plaza Building, Concourse Level, Governor’s Square 15
Tonegawa brewery has carried out an expansion project to increase the
capacity of beer production. This expansion project has enabled an
increase in annual capacity from 3 million hL to 4 million hL. We have
taken on challenges for reconstruction of the energy system to achieve
ecofriendly and cost reduction. Through this activity, we try to realize
a top runner factory as well as develop No. 1 energy-saving
technologies. A new heat supply and recovery system consist of an
improvement of heat recovery by the wort boiling and heat supply from
co-generation and a boiler suitable for beer production. Conventional
wort boiling system recovered hot water by heat exchange with vapor, but
produced more hot water than our usage. We have developed a new wort
boiling system that has a big inner heat exchanger and thermal vapor
recompression system to achieve high heat energy efficiency. The
recovered vapor is reused as energy for boiling to reduce the steam
supply for boiling. The higher the vapor recompression efficiency
achieved, the more heat energy is reduced. It aims at a high-efficiency
energy circulation system, vapor recompression efficiency adjusted at a
maximum. As a result of this improvement in the boiling system, vapor
recompression efficiency reached over 50%. Improvement in the boiling
system has significantly changed the energy balance of the entire plant
because hot water for cleaning is reduced and the amount of steam for
wort heating is also reduced. So the existing energy supply system needs
to be reconstructed to minimize energy loss. The previous heat supply
system of the Tonegawa brewery is made up of a water tube boiler and a
gas engine co-generation system. Since the previous steam was
high-temperature and high-pressure, boiler efficiency was not high.
Furthermore, the temperature of the feed-water for the boiler was very
high because of the high temperature of the recovery steam condensate,
which led to high exhaust gas temperature, and boiler exhaust gas loss
became very large. We have achieved a high efficiency boiler system by
recovering heat from the exhaust gas and lowering the feed water
temperature. The lower feed water temperature and reduction of steam
pressure were done by maximizing the thermal efficiency of the beer
production process. This activity achieved over 96% of boiler
efficiency. In addition, we are also working on the effective
utilization of the engine cooling water. We recover hot water from the
gas engine and use it effectively for the absorption chiller and hot
water recovery equipment.
Kohei Yamada graduated with a master’s of engineering from Nara
Institute of Science and Technology. He joined Suntory Holdings Ltd. in
April 2009 and started his career in the Engineering Department. He has
been engaged in plant construction. He participated in the expansion
project at Tonegawa brewery in 2012. He is responsible for energy saving
and the update of wort preparation and power plant.
