Fluids Handling

ICB Distillers cuts production costs with contact-free flow meter

Phil Black - PII Editor 02/12/2025

219 4 minutes read

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ICB Distillers has made an important move to decrease the cost of production while keeping high hygiene standards and product quality consistent. The introduction of Bürkert's FLOWave contact-free flow meter has enabled the drinks manufacturer to achieve highly accurate flow measurement without media contact. This has helped to minimise product wastage as well as greatly reduce the amount of water required for flushing its clean-in-place system.

ICB Distillers manufacture the spirit-based drinks for its own brands as well as blends developed for supermarkets and other labels at the company's Middlesbrough facility. The site undertakes mixing, blending, and bottling, dispatching approximately 30 million retail-ready bottles annually.

Spirits, like rum and ethanol, are shipped to the site where they are mixed with ingredients like fruit juices, creams, purified water, and sugar, depending on each particular recipe.

Quality Product Management

When a tanker arrives at the Middlesbrough plant, the spirit or ethanol is discharged into a bund containing six storage tanks. At production, the alcohol is transferred into mixing vessels according to the recipe and the required ABV level of the product. This flexible pipe matrix allows the team to make a wide range of blends and to support the development of new beverages whenever needed.

Accurate flow measurement across these lines is crucial for the maintenance of product quality. It makes sure that each and every batch is to specification, while it also supports reliable stock control and efficient cost management.

Hygiene is another important factor: with several different types of spirit passing through the network of pipes, the ability to avoid cross-contamination is crucial to maintaining consistency and product integrity.

The business also depends on a rigorous CIP process. Though it is important to remove traces of all cleaning chemicals through rinsing, now reducing the usage of water is of great significance, both for cost control as well as environmental reasons. Till today, residual spirit left inside the pipelines was lost with CIP, adding unnecessary cost in each production run.

Reduce production cost

“Spirits left in the line have been washed away during CIP” explains Gary Bragman, Project Manager at ICB Distillers. “It was important for us to move to a system that could integrate a pigging system, save on water, and control product flow with greater accuracy.”

In these systems, pigging sends a flexible bung called a pig through the pipeline to recover valuable product and clean the line in advance of CIP. To implement this method, ICB Distillers needed a pipeline design that used flow meters without any internal parts that could interfere with the passage of the pig.Working with Bürkert, flow specialists Kieran Bennett and Chris Hughes specified the FLOWave flow meter. Since there are no seals, electrodes or parts in the media path, the meter eliminates points where bacteria can accumulate, ensuring easy cleaning.

To deliver measurement accuracy without direct contact, FLOWave transmits high-frequency Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) across the fluid. Changes in flow, mass, temperature and density change the wave characteristics, allowing the flow conditions to be detected with high accuracy.

Reduced water use in CIP

Another reason FLOWave was chosen was that it could potentially lower water usage during CIP cycles. Traditional cleaning processes operate on fixed cycle times, flushing chemicals and then rinsing with clean water. To make sure all residue is removed, operators tend to adopt conservative timings, which results in over-flushing and high water consumption.

FLOWave can detect the media phase change, referred to as the differentiation factor, enabling operators to know precisely when cleaning chemicals have been fully flushed out. This allows for much shorter rinse periods: water usage can be significantly reduced without compromising hygiene standards.

“With at least one CIP process per day, and tens of thousands of litres of water involved per year, the cost and time saving is significant” says Kieran Bennett of Bürkert. “Total water saving can be up to 50%, which also achieves a significant environmental benefit.”

In May, the first FLOWave meter installed on the feedlines from the bund went live. With phased commissioning currently under way, improvements in flow control accuracy and overall production efficiency have already been realised by the plant.

Improving production efficiency

“Previously, challenges in the accuracy of controlling the flow of spirits using mag-based flow meters meant continually adjusting the mixture, adding highly purified water to help meet the ABV level, as well as sugar and other ingredients” explains Gary. “Now, with Bürkert's FLOWave, we can get a much more accurate measurement of what's going into a mixing tank before pumping it to the line. From initial batches of 500 litres, each one has been accurate to less than two litres difference.”

The meters are installed in an ATEX Zone 2 hazardous area. Data is transmitted to a Bürkert ME61 display that is located in a separate control room. FLOWave has both analogue and digital outputs, and by daisy chaining the digital communication ports, a single 25 metre cable connects the flow meters to the display via Bürkert’s EDIP CAN based protocol.

The system delivers both batch and total flow rate information, which allows the operations team to maintain full oversight of production. As more flow meters are implemented during the next few months, ICB Distillers will continue to develop the pigging system across the network. This will radically reduce spirit losses further and continue to cut CIP water consumption.

The combined effect is likely to yield a very swift payback while helping to improve sustainability and productivity standards even more. By streamlining flow measurement, reducing waste, and optimising CIP routines, ICB Distillers reinforces its capability for producing high-quality beverages efficiently and responsibly while protecting long-term operating costs.

Bürkert Fluid Control Systems
Tel: +44 1285 64 87 20
Email: sales.uk@burkert.com
Web: www.burkert.co.uk

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Burkert Fluid Control Systems

01285648720
sales.uk@burkert.com
http://www.burkert.com/
Fluid Control Centre 1 Bridge End Gloucestershire Cirencester GL7 1QY GB

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Bürkert is present in thirtyfive countries around the world. We also work with a large network of distributors and partners, which means we are as close as possible to our customers. This global presence ensures full service and support to all of our customers in every country around the world. Research is the lifeblood of our company.

At Bürkert, we are never satisfied with the status quo and are continually seeking new technologies and solutions for our customers. Every year, our people develop new and highly advanced products and solutions, ranging from integrated process measurement and control units to the most sophisticated systems used in pharmaceutical research. To be a market leader, we are also an R&D leader.

Therefore, our investment in research & development is one of the highest in our industry. In our research centres in Germany and France, 150 people are committed to working for a common future for our company and our customers. We are committed to offering our expertise wherever it is needed, anywhere in the world. This global presence ensures that our advances in fluid control technology are also global.

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