The Wolfson Centre for Bulk Solids Handling Technology

Poeth delivers for Algiers brewer

(Posted on 11/09/18)

One of the largest beer brewers in the world is investing substantially in Algiers where beer consumption is increasing at a rate of 10% a year. The company recently installed a completely new silo system at its newly acquired brewery near Algiers. Poeth Solids Processing from Tegelen in the Netherlands delivered the largest and highest ATEX-compliant Z-Conveyor ever as part of this project. Every hour, 30 tons of malt and barley are transported up to a height of no less than 30 metres in this explosion-proof plant. The brewer’s investment in this ATEX-compliant Z-Conveyor meant that less money had to be spent on explosion proofing elsewhere in the plant. In addition, the Z-Conveyor is energy-efficient and transports the malt and barley without damage.

Inexpensive and energy-efficient transport without having to build expensive underground silos and superstructures

Bucket elevators are an excellent solution when products have to be transported vertically. However, the expense involved in explosion-proofing bucket elevators can sometimes exceed the purchase price of the transport system itself by a factor of three. Poeth Solids Processing from Tegelen saw an opportunity here and has developed the new ATEX-compliant Z-Conveyor for transporting potentially explosive, dry products. There is no risk of explosion because the Z-Conveyor operates perfectly at speeds well below 1 m/s. Thanks to this unique characteristic and other features of the Z-Conveyor, the brewery in Algiers was able to avoid investing significant amounts in compartmentalisation, explosion suppression, explosion venting, skew prevention, automation and maintenance in order to achieve full ATEX protection.

The Z-Conveyor effortlessly transports malt and barley up to a height of 30 metres. The new Z-Conveyor is capable of transporting large volumes (5 m3 to 220 m3 per hour) of dry products horizontally, diagonally and vertically up to significant heights. Until now, Poeth had mainly supplied Z-Conveyors for transporting products up to a height of 10 metres. In Algiers, Poeth Solids Processing successfully designed and built an explosion-proof Z-Conveyor that effortlessly transports malt and barley up to a height of 30 metres. This makes the system in Algiers the largest and highest conveyor ever supplied by Poeth. The new Z-Conveyor from Poeth can be installed without a roof superstructure, underground silos or pits. So this well-known brewer was able to reduce its building construction costs significantly. The Z-Conveyor transports raw materials gently and without damage. This characteristic makes the new transport system particularly suitable for malt and barley in this beer brewery.

Poeth Solids Processing delivered the Z-Conveyor to the Algiers brewery as part of a complete turnkey project. In addition to the transport system, Poeth also supplied the 5700 m³ capacity silo structure, the Sea Container Tilting Unit, inline weighers, cleaning systems, spark detection and the electronic controls and wiring. The official external ATEX certification agency awarded a high score for explosion safety in Algiers: “scorecard 4 - very good”. Poeth will soon build similar systems for the same brewer in Nigeria and Cambodia.