Guinness upgrades yeast system

Continued growth has meant the redevelopment of Guinness' Waterford site in Ireland. Amongst the renovations has been a change to a single tank yeast system to optimise quality.

The new system was supplied and installed by APV, The company has recently equipped large scale breweries in Thailand and South Africa. The South African plant incorporated a single vessel yeast propagation system. The successful implementation of this project was an influencing factor in the award of the Guinness redevelopment project, APV said.

The single tank yeast system, such as the one installed at Waterford, has seen a resurgence in recent years. To meet hygiene standards, APV optimised the cleaning and sterilisation regimes for the yeast propagation system to ensure the production of high quality yeast.

APV supplied pumps, valves and heat exchangers. The company says that its rotary lobe pumps, high efficiency centrifugal pumps and self-priming pumps are all designed to reduce production costs, create quieter working environments, bring reliability to the production process and ensure an improved quality end product.

Crucial to the efficiency of such a system is the quality of valves and heat exchangers. The valve portfolio includes valves from APV's comprehensive range of butterfly, single seat and double seat units. These have been designed to meet priorities of problem free product flow, safe separation of fluids and easy cleaning. Heat exchangers, utilising APV's Duo Safety plates, have been used on heating and cooling applications where the possibility of product integrity is of concern. Each duo-plate consists of a pair of non-welded plates back to back with the leak path open to atmosphere. This, says APV, protects the product from the service medium in cases of plate leaks caused by cracks or corrosion.

APV is part of Invensys, a global leader in production technology. The group helps customers in a host of industries improve productivity, performance and profitability using innovative services and technologies and a deep understanding of their industries and applications.