Data science for enhancing resource efficiency in manufacturing processes

Context

About 96% of the 16.5 million tons of malt made in the world is used as the main ingredient for beer production. Bühler estimates that about 75-80 % of the world’s barley malt is produced using its malting equipment. The MontBlanc solution was developed to address the carbon emissions associated with the high energy demand of malting processes.

Objectives

‍MontBlanc aims at reducing the energy consumption, and therefore greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, of the malting process by optimizing a key component of the procedure. In a typical plant, the kilning process (i.e., the drying of the malt) follows a strict, pre-defined schedule with defined process parameters. However, depending on batch characteristics (such as initial moisture level) and weather conditions, the process parameters do not always fit the pre-defined schedule. MontBlanc leverages a large set of variables (weather, plant environment, grain characteristics) to forecast the evolution of the kilning process for each batch of product. It estimates the waiting time expected at the end of the next batch and then it computes the optimal fan speed necessary to reduce this expected waiting time and thus optimizing the electrical power consumed.

Benefits

After deploying the MontBlanc service in an industrial trial at a pilot customer for a period of 11 months, about 16% reduction in electrical power consumption with respect to standard operations has been observed. The food production domain is vast and complex, with thousands of processes and machines in use. MontBlanc shows a tangible example of data science potential in the manufacturing sector.

Notes

‍Special thanks to the Bühler GQ Unit, and particularly to Matthias Graeber, Head of Data Science at Bühler Group, for their support and exchanges during the MontBlanc project.

References

• Swiss Data Science Center | Blog about Montblanc
• Bühler Group | Digital fan speed optimization for maltsters
• Food Ingredients 1st | Drinktec 2022: Bühler’s MontBlanc digital system slashes emissions in kilns