Metering and Conveying Spent Brewer’s Grain

General Description

MillerCoors, the second-largest beer company in America, was in need of a solution for transporting spent grain from the brew house to outside storage silos at one of the largest single-site breweries in the world. Spent grain is one of the byproducts created during the brewing process and has nutritional value as an animal feed source. The conveying system previously in place, progressive cavity pumps, proved to be a significant and consistent maintenance problem resulting in brewing downtime. KWS replaced the problematic pumps with four inclined screw feeders to meter the spent grain out of the collection bins below the filter presses. These four inclined screw feeders meter the spent grain to a single collection screw conveyor that transports the grain to another system of screw conveyors that conveys the grain to its final destination.

Design Parameters

KWS Advantages

KWS’s engineering and sales team traveled to the brewery to meet with the MillerCoors team to determine their exact needs. While onsite, the KWS team gathered critical dimensional information of existing equipment and determined the best layout for the future equipment to ensure the transition and installation of the new equipment would be seamless. KWS provided detailed equipment and layout drawings used to secure mechanical and electrical installation bids, as well as a written description of equipment operation for the brewery operations department. KWS also provided all of the structural supports for the conveyor and feeder, inlet and discharge transitions, and plug chute detectors for ease of installation.

Special Features

Since the spent grain was going to be sold and used for animal feed, KWS designed and manufactured the equipment from 304-stainless steel to prevent corrosion. The four inclined screw feeders were designed with split-tubular housings to increase metering efficiency and keep the product completely contained to eliminate spillage. Inverter duty motors give the operators the ability to adjust the speed of the motors and the brewery full control of how much and from which of the four bins they wish to discharge at any given time. This provides the brewery with complete flexibility that was previously unavailable. The transfer screw conveyor was designed and manufactured to CEMA standards so spare parts would be in stock and readily available 24/7. KWS provided multiple inspection doors on the conveyor covers to allow the operators to view the spent grain being conveyed and to check the wear on the hanger bearings.