Algist Bruggeman is a specialist in brewer’s yeast. High quality and purity are essential elements in their products. The new packaging hall with warehouse, which we had the privilege to design and build for them, will certainly contribute to these goals.
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Naturally, the design came with a number of challenges: a buffer storage area, a visitor room, and CIP-capable vacuum transport were on their wish list. Our team of civil, mechanical & electrical engineers, site supervisors, and the project manager guided everything smoothly to completion. Everything was commissioned during the summer of 2024.
A custom-built factory
The objective was to package high-quality brewer’s yeast with the highest possible level of purity. To achieve this, we created a building with several key features:
- Buffer storage: The buffer warehouse allows for the storage of neutral packages. This increases flexibility by partially decoupling production and order fulfillment.
- Visitor room: Visitors can follow the full process from a dedicated observation room on the first floor—without having to enter the cleanrooms or the machine area.
- Positive pressure rooms (cleanrooms): To avoid contamination from other yeast strains in the packaging and production lines, we integrated positive pressure cleanrooms. These maintain purity in zones where unpackaged products are handled, such as at the bagging machines.
- Vacuüm transport system: The yeast is transferred from the dryer in the production facility to the packaging building via vacuum transport. This system is fully cleanable using CIP (Cleaning-In-Place) and can also be dried. These features eliminate cross-contamination between different batches.
- Fully cleanable building: Technical areas and production are physically separated as much as possible, allowing critical zones to be cleaned more efficiently and thoroughly.
Unique CIP-Capable Vacuum Transport systtem
One of the major challenges involved the conditional safety of the vacuum transport system and its integration with all primary and secondary packaging machines. We developed an innovative solution that enables CIP cleaning across all components.
To ensure safety, some parts of the vacuum system need to be cleaned with a hot cleaning solution (80°C) while other parts remain in active production.
We designed all system elements to be individually cleanable and strictly separated from the parts that remain operational. This ensures operator safety at all times, whether during CIP, normal production, or simultaneous operation of both.
We also factored in future expansion options, including a second pneumatic transport line and additional bagging machines.
Final piece of the packaging puzzle
This was not our first collaboration with Algist Bruggeman. Back in 2018 and 2019, we already made their dryer CIP-capable, significantly improving yeast purity. The new packaging hall now completes the puzzle, enabling the production of extremely pure and high-quality brewer’s yeast.
Proud of the result
Algist Bruggeman is very pleased with their new warehouse and packaging hall—and we are also immensely proud of our team. Thanks to their dedication, we were able to deliver this impressive result. In the video, we give the floor to everyone involved.
