Unternehmensweite Modellierung und Simulation von Produktionssystemen der Prozessindustrie am Beispiel von Brauereien

There is an increasing demand for sustainable production of chemicals, food and pharmaceuticals. This work shows how digitalization and virtualization, based on simulation modelling, can be applied to holistically analyze process industry production systems and to increase production sustainability, using breweries as an example. A novel tool, based on Reference nets, Java, database systems and a model coupling mechanism called Balance Flows was developed. It was used to virtualize plant-wide operations of breweries (including wort production, beer production, bottling and cleaning). This tool provides great support in quantifying ecologically and economically saving potentials, which was shown based on various case studies: The installation of a second wort pan in one brewery increases the production capacity by 30 %. Replacing a specific wort pump led to savings of 30 kWh per week and an additional storage water tank in the Clean-In-Place plant of one brewery reduces fresh water requirements by 5000 kg/week. Additionally, modifying the production schedule results in savings in the double-digit percentage range due to varying electricity costs. These potentials are analyzed in the context of the whole enterprise and are based on single “digital twins” of the considered breweries. The analysis of the various departments of breweries in a holistic manner led to numerous ecologically and economically insights. The novel virtualization tool provides an excellent basis for modelling and simulating typical entities of batch orientated process industry production systems (recipes, processes and devices) and is a great assistance for plant managers and engineers.