 A
large alcohol distilling unit at Canandaigua Wine Company's
Mission Bell Winery has successfully restarted after shutdown
for the installation of revolutionary PlantWeb field-based
automation from Emerson Process Management. The automation upgrade may
have saved the 37-year old still. Taste tests indicate that
the 2000 proof-gallon/hour, sieve-plate column distillation
unit has begun producing a 191- to 192-proof neutral spirit
of a grade that may be useful for inclusion in Canandaigua's
highest quality brandies and fortified wines. In the past,
alcohol from the unit was so inconsistent it had to be redistilled
at another winery. The company seriously considered tearing
down the still and rebuilding.
"At the root of the problem were the unit's failing
1950s-era pneumatic controls," indicated Robert Calvin,
Director of Engineering - West Coast for Canandaigua. "At
first we thought poor alcohol quality was due to leaking condensers,
metal erosion, and collapsing plates. But tests and gamma
ray inspections proved that the all-stainless steel unit was
still sound."
The Mission Bell Winery, dating from 1894, is the third largest
in the world measured by grape crushing capacity and cases
of wine per year. Table wines produced include the Almaden,
Inglenook, Taylor, and Arbor Mist brands. Feedstock for the
winery's distillation unit is a mixture of fermented sugars
from the remains of grape processing, off-spec product, sediment
from fermentation tanks, and good wine more valuable distilled.
The PlantWeb field-based automation solution now operating
the still provides the power and capabilities of a conventional
DCS in a substantially more cost-effective package offering
distributed intelligence, rich data collection, and remote
diagnostic, calibration, and maintenance capabilities. The
architecture includes a DeltaV automation system with redundant
controllers and PC workstations, as well as FOUNDATION fieldbus
and HART field devices. The application is believed to be
the largest fieldbus installation in California.
"Fieldbus was chosen as the primary communications protocol
to minimize wiring, assure the highest speed and accuracy,
enable diagnostics and calibration from the workstations,
and provide a wealth of information," Calvin said.
"Plate temperatures in the main column are now monitored,
for instance, allowing a temperature profile generated by
the automation to detail the distribution of alcohol and other
distillates in the column. We didn't have that before. Because
the PlantWeb architecture is scalable in sophistication as
well as size, an upgrade to a control strategy based on mass
and energy balances is planned for the near future,"
Calvin commented. "Balance-based control should further
tighten and smooth the process."
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