Cocoa Beverage Case Study

A major beverage manufacturer needed to increase capacity and
“de-bottleneck” the batching process to meet higher capacity bottling lines and customer demand.

Industry: Food & Beverage

To meet the increased capacity goals, Semi-Bulk Systems engineered customized solutions including:

• Replaced bulk bag system (400 lbs./min) with high capacity bulk truck unload to silo, conveyance to hi performance EJM skid process (650-750 #/min dry) feeding Vacucam 340 gpm In-line Sugar Slurry Process
• Flexibility to move from bulk bag handling to bulk truck unload process delivering to bulk silo.
• Minimized capital expenditure by retrofitting process with existing equipment.
• Dry sugar dissolution WITHOUT high shear or heat which saves energy and prevents wear at the mix point.
• Utilized standard for non-weighed dry side (i.e. bulk truck, rail car, etc.) with unique Semi-Bulk control strategies to control +/- 0.1° Brix.

Specifically for their cocoa production, we utilized our Vacucam® In-line Slurry Process with the following approach:

• Accommodated high fat (10%+) containing cocoas by de-agglomerating the cocoa in dry state with sifter
• Delivered significant improvement versus traditional / vacuum high shear mixers. Generated no agglomerates or fish-eyes using Vacucam® dynamic dispersion.
• De-Agglomeration and Dynamic Dispersion of cocoa powders prevents inclusion of dry / un-wetted agglomerates lessening potential encapsulation of spore forming organisms in the slurry which may protect them during UHT treatment.
• Validated to meet stringent requirements for UHT cocoa processing.

We deliver Our Performance Guarantee:

• Tripled capacity by reducing batch cycle time
• Reduced dry storage and improved work-flow moving from bulk bag sugar to bulk truck.
• Improved overall beverage mix quality. Maximized efficiency of the UHT process.
• Reduced labor costs.
• Allowed for parallel processing – eliminated sequential batching for functional ingredients, sweeteners, cocoa, and sugar.
• Processing – step change improvement
• Sugar – high capacity, using SBS unique powder handling / sugar liquefication processes.
• Cocoa – Integrates into UHT process with complete dispersion and controlled amount of shear on cocoa.

Would you like to see the advantages Semi-Bulk Systems can provide to increase the efficiency of your beverage production? Contact us to evaluate your next project.