Shearer’s Foods Massillon Plant

The Shearer’s Foods snack foods manufacturing plant in the village of Brewster in Massillon is regarded as the most sustainable project in the world. Situated in Ohio, US, the plant is first of its kind in the world to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification in June 2010. Shearer’s Food has also partnered with Energy Star Partner of the US Environmental Protect Agency for reducing the environmental impact of the Massillon plant.

The plant is being built in three phases. Phase 1 of construction was started in July 2009, completed in March 2010 and opened in August 2010. Work on Phase 2 began in June 2010 and was completed in the first half of 2011. The current plant size is 110,000ft². Phase 3 will include construction of corporate offices and will be completed during 2012-2013.

Phase 1 cost $10m for construction; Phase 2 had an estimated cost of $12m. The total cost of equipment for the first two phases was estimated to be $40m. The entire project is estimated to cost $66.5m.

The project created 35 jobs in Phase I. About 150 people are expected to be hired to facilitate the additional capacity achieved after the completion of phase two. The project has received funding assistance and tax incentives from the state and local governments.

Plant design

Phase 1 of the plant is a pre-engineered structure built within an area of 47,000ft². It includes 20,000ft² of processing area, 14,200ft² of associated areas, 12,800ft² for packaging and a 15,000ft² of mezzanine level.

The design incorporated many sustainable features. The building used Forest Stewardship Council certified wood and 22% recycled material for construction. The plant recycles 92% of its wastes and consumes 30% less electrical energy compared to conventional plants.

The building is designed with high level of roof and walls insulation and energy efficient windows. The hard surfaces have reflective white roof for preventing heat island generation. It uses energy efficient production process equipment, HVAC systems and efficient water fixtures.

Native plantations for landscaping require less water and maintenance. Light coloured paved surfaces reduce the heat island effect. Large windows and skylights allow natural light into the work environment. The potato-slice washing system of the plant is designed to reduce water consumption by about 60%. The company is also working on various sustainable projects.

The plant has two 250,000lb Columbian TecTank corn silos and a pneumatic conveying system. Sophisticated shop floor control systems are used to monitor the water usage in the corn cook and soak system.

The tortilla chips line includes a fryer, packaging mezzanine and associated equipment, five weigh scales and five vertical form, fill and seal packaging machines and product distribution conveyors. The heat exchanger ducts reduce the total energy requirements.

Phase 2 added a 64,000ft² building to the existing facility. It is equipped with six kettle chip processing lines, a 4,200lb continuous potato chip production line and complete logistics facilities. It also has room for two more potato chip lines. In addition, it includes a 20,000ft² warehouse and an anaerobic digester wastewater treatment facility.

Site

The plant is located on 34 acres of land in the NEO Com Industrial Park. It is located at 4,100 Millennium Blvd in Massillon. About 63,936ft² of space was used for housing production and temporary staging areas at Millennium Drive.

Technology

The corn cooking and transfer system, used to make cornmeal dough for Tortilla chips, was manufactured by Quality Fabrication. The heat exchanger of the fryer is also connected to the HVAC system. A Siemens controller is used to monitor the air combustion in the burner. It is expected to annually reduce the gas consumption by about 1.7 billion BTUs and water consumption by one third.

The high-efficiency tortilla chip oven at the plant is designed with 24 infrared burners and an enclosed cavity to reduce the gas consumption by 47%. It was custom designed by IET Combustion. Heat recovered from the production process is used for heating the building and water.

A liquid chimney heat-recovery system was built to capture 90% of the hot exhaust air from the Tortilla oven. The heat is transferred to the HVAC system of the plant. It will be used for preheating water in the corn cook process and for sanitary. It was designed and built by Professional Supply (PSI).

Kettles of the Massillon plant are equipped with centrifuges to remove 40% of the oil from the chips before packaging. The Shapers whole-grain chips line consists of Clextral twin-screw extruder for micro-mixing, two TNA Robag scaler and bagger systems, a fryer supplied by Quality Fabrication and Design, and conveyance systems. The six-barrel extruder line has a capacity of 800lb throughput per hour.

Processing

The new plant was built to boost the production capacity of Tangos and Shapers brand snack foods. The kettle-chip systems remove 40% of the oil from the chips using a centrifugal oil-removal system. The 500lb per hour capacity kettle fryers also feature low energy consuming thermal fluid exchanger oil heating. The food safety, quality and compliance data are tested using statistical process control software from InfinityQS.

Capacity

In Phase 1, the plant produces many varieties of tortilla chips and has a capacity of 17 million lbs per year. It has scope for future expansion.

The plant uses 20% lesser energy than the existing production lines of Shearer’s. Upon completion of all the three phases, the plant’s production capacity is expected to reach 80 million lbs per year.