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Project Profile

Wine Fermentation & Stabilisation at Nugan Estate Winery

Industry: Manufacturing

Overview

Genesis II Controllers, have been installed at the Nugan Estate Winery Processing Plant in Willbriggie, NSW.

The Innotech system was installed by Sanders Control Systems, a Distributor based in Albury, NSW. Sanders Control Systems have 35 years experience in working with the wine industry.

Challenge

The function of the Innotech control system is to provide Nugan Estate Winery with a cost-effective system that can be operated easily while maintaining very stringent control over the stabilisation and fermentation processes.

Site Logistics

Nugan Estate has been in the wine making business for approximately three years. Their facility features a building that spans a massive roof area of approximately 10,000 square metres and contains 120 fermentation tanks ranging between 5,000 and 180,000 litres capacity.

Solution

The Innotech control system consists of:
The system facilitates fully automatic temperature control and monitoring of the wine fermentation tanks.

Temperature control of the tanks can be enabled and adjusted using the on-site computer or via an HMI* incorporated into the front of each Genesis II controller, or remotely via modem.

During the wine fermentation process, the tanks can generate extremely high levels of heat. For this reason, the Genesis II system has been programmed to maintain the temperature of the tanks at 16 C during the fermentation process and -4 C during the stabilisation process.

Each fermentation tank is cooled using a low temperature brine that is circulated through heat exchangers located either in or around the tanks. Brine flow is controlled by solenoid valves situated at each tank. These solenoids are controlled by the Innotech system.

The Genesis II controllers are installed in four separate sections of the same building as the wine fermentation tanks. Each controller is programmed to control a group of 20 tanks.

Summary

“The Innotech system has made tank management extremely easy for Nugan Estate,” commented Senior Winemaker, Darren Owers. “The Genesis II Controllers offer us the benefit of concise, up-to-the-minute readouts with the help of a simple-to-use keypad.”

Installation of the six Genesis II controllers using low-cost 10k thermistors has proven to be more economical than the alternative of installing 120 separate panel mount process controls with expensive PT100 sensors. An additional benefit of the Genesis II system is that control and monitoring can be carried out from a central location.

Key Functions
  • Fully automatic temperature control and monitoring of the wine fermentation and stabilisation processes.
  • Ability to maintain very stringent control parameters.
  • Ability to adapt to varying pre-requisites.
  • Cost effectiveness.
  • Simple user interface.
  • Control and monitoring of the system can be carried out from central or remote locations.

For more information about this project or if Innotech can help you please contact us.

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