Molson Coors Brewery Upgrade and Expansion

In 2001-02, Molson Coors Brewing Company spent $35m upgrading its brewery in Burton-on-Trent. This was known as the ‘Merlin’ project. Molson Coors entered the UK brewing market in February 2002 with the acquisition of Carling Brewers from Interbrew for $1.2bn. Along with the Burton-on-Trent site, the company bought breweries in Cape Hill near Birmingham, Tadcaster in Yorkshire and Alton in Hampshire.

Cape Hill’s production had mainly been used for export to Interbrew. As Molson Coors acquired the brewery, this export capacity was no longer needed. However, the Cape Hill plant still had a small-pack capacity that fitted Molson Coors’ business. Molson Coors decided to close the Cape Hill site and reorganise production and packaging at Burton-on-Trent.

Molson Coors’ engineers worked closely with Lorien Consulting on the design of the new and upgraded facilities. Lorien provided design and project management expertise to assist Molson Coors’ in-house engineering team.

Coors Brewers Limited became Molson Coors Brewing Company (UK) Limited with effect from 31 March 2009.

Molson Coors site reorganisation

The Molson Coors site was split into two neighbouring production and packaging facilities, North and South. The two existing Burton can lines were combined into a high-speed line and relocated in the South warehouse. An existing widget (floating ball system used to provide a creamy head on canned beers) can line from Cape Hill was also relocated to this site.

The area vacated by the two can lines was taken up by two reused bottle lines from Cape Hill. Finally, all keg production was moved to the North site and flavoured alcoholic beverage (FAB, commonly known as alcopops) mixing equipment was moved to a site close to the bottle lines.

By the conclusion of the project, Molson Coors had three canning and three bottling lines, designed to run a wide range of packages, yet with minimum system specification variation. This decision was aimed at supporting the brewer’s need for high operating efficiencies and rapid line changeover.

Canning line equipment

The canning lines were designed to handle steel and aluminium cans in 500ml, 440ml and 330ml sizes. The 500ml cans were also produced with a widget. All of the cans used at the brewery are supplied by Ball Packaging Europe, a subsidiary of Ball Corporation. Under the plan, one canning line, CL1, was to be closed. Two canning lines, CL2 and CL3, were to be relocated to the South site. The final line, CL4, was to be expanded.

New equipment was installed on the relocated CL2, including a depalletiser from Busse, matt top conveyors from Gebo, air conveyors and rinsers from Ling Systems, an auto lid feed from CSW, a Sander Hansen pasteuriser, a Twin-Stack from Riverwood (now Graphic Packaging International), a Kister tray and film packer and two palletisers from Alvey. On CL3, the other relocated line, Gebo provided a full can conveyor to go alongside pack conveyors from Alvey and ASI. The remaining line, CL4, was expanded with two palletisers from Alvey.

New ITW Hi Cone systems were installed for secondary packaging that allowed for both side- and rim-applied packaging in packs of four, six and eight. The side-applied system included a self-contained handle, which provided for side-lift carrying. The handle surface area could also be used for brand, pack size or promotional messaging with the addition of a communication label.

Filtration and control for canning lines

Lorien and Molson Coors turned to FMA Process Engineering for advice on process design and control on CL2 and CL3. FMA reautomated two kieselguhr (KG) diatomaceous earth filters and a polyvinyl polypyrrolidone (PVPP) horizontal leaf filter, and added a second horizontal PVPP filter to create two discrete filter lines. The filters used on the lines were provided by SeitzSchenk filter systems, a division of the Pall Corporation.

KG filters comprise thermally treated skeletons and housings of sedimented diatoms. The vast variety of skeleton particles forms a stable and porous matrix with a large specific surface area, which offers low density and excellent filter output. Silicates make up 85% to 90% of the diatoms. SeitzSchenk offers its clients a range of KG grades that possess various permeabilities so that a suitable product is available for every individual filtration task. PVPP sheet filters are used in conjunction with KG filters to finish the production of bright (particle-free) beer.

Along the line, FMA focused on the concurrent electrical installation and control system to move the filtered beer from the bright beer tanks to CL2 and CL3, via the use of an existing clean-in-place (CIP) unit. A Rockwell Controllogix solution was used to upgrade the existing PLC control system for filtration and to provide control over beer supply for the can lines. FMA was then able to provide a detailed functional specification incorporating filtration, CIP and beer supply requirements as well as operation of all new and existing process plants. The instigation of the new system required the use of software simulation procedures for the training of operators.

Deaeration water plant

FMA was also involved as project managers in the upgrade of the systems at Molson Coors Burton Brewery which were responsible for the deaeration of water – removal of oxygen down to concentrations less than ten parts per billion. This required the replacement of the Mojo plant in the Burton South Filtration room. The contractors who supplied the new plant were Centec. The Burton South filtration room uses 580hl of water per hour and so the efficiency of the new plant had to be above recourse.

In the deaeration plant treated water is taken from a buffer tank and filtered to remove particulates of around 1µm. The water is then passed through two nitrogen sweep membranes to remove gas and chilled from 15°C to 1.5°C. Finally, it is stored in three 600 barrel tanks ready for use on the canning/bottling lines.

Bottling lines

At the North site, the three bottling lines also saw substantial expansion, using new equipment as well as kit transferred from the Cape Hill plant. Glass bottles with crown closures are the structure of choice at Burton. Bottle sizes range from 250ml to 330ml, with minimum diameter and height changes. Bottles used come in flint, green and amber, using glass supplied by UG, Rexam, Rockware and Quinn.

On the first line, BL1, KHS supplied a bulk glass depalletiser, Gebo bottle conveyors, Krones labeller and empty bottle inspector, ASI pack conveyors and Alvey palletiser. On BL2, KHS, Gebo and ASI equipment was used, while Sander Hansen provided a pasteuriser. ASI also supplied a new pack conveyor for BL3.

Multi-year redevelopment programme

In August 2011, Molson Coors announced a £175m multi-year investment programme for its breweries in the UK. The programme includes an additional £15m investment annually over the next five years, mainly on the Burton-on-Trent brewery.

The Burton redevelopment project will remove old malting facilities at the site including a 57m malting tower. It also includes installation of modern bottling and canning areas, and new beer processing and filtration facilities. The new facilities will help in meeting the future needs of customers.

The project commenced in January 2012 with the removal of malting facilities. The malting tower was demolished in May 2012. The cleared site will be used to build an advanced energy centre after receiving permission from the planning commission. The energy centre will improve the efficiency of the facility and reduce energy usage by 20% by 2020.