Turnkey brewery development and expansion
- Client: Global drinks manufacturer
- Ethiopia
Services provided
- Project management
- ME&I engineering & design
- Procurement, shipping and installation
- Testing and commissioning
- Manuals and documentation.
- Value – £8.98 million
The project
Our client had acquired a facility near to Addis Ababa and needed a complete turnkey solution for a brewery development and expansion. Mobilisation, site establishment and receipt of shipments on site began three months after placement of the order. The total engineering solution combined the expertise of our electrical and mechanical engineers and their working knowledge of worldwide shipping.
We used a core ex-pat team for management and supervision, supported by local labour. Knowledge transfer included our installation practices, our health and safety culture, and training in the operation and maintenance of equipment.
Key challenges
- We needed to be cost-competitive while also meeting a demanding programme of design, procurement, installation and commissioning
- Equipment for the project was purchased and shipped from America, Turkey, Egypt and UK
- Conditions were demanding, with an altitude of 2356m and gradients of 1:5.
Civil works
These included foundations for pipe bridge and support structures with direct buried cabling, road crossings and cable draw pits.
Electrical works
- A 3000kVA generator was purchased from the USA, containerised in the UK and shipped to Ethiopia
- A 15kV high-voltage primary switchboard, 15kV high-voltage ring-main units and 11 ONAN transformers were shipped and installed
- A generator and synchronisation control system were designed and installed so that the existing 2275kVA generator and the new 3000kVA generator can either run individually or be synchronised together and automatically governed to support fluctuating demand.
- 4,400m of high-voltage and 14,100m of low-voltage cabling were installed on 1,500m of racking
- Energy-efficient LED lighting was installed in a bottling hall
- For earthing systems, earth nests, earthing and bonding were incorporated.
Mechanical installations
- A 15-tonne/hour steam boiler weighing 36 tonnes to replace the existing boiler
- A 20,000-litre insulated stainless-steel hot well with a carbon-steel blowdown vessel
- A 2,300m3/hr compressed air dryer with filters, aftercooler, and a 1,300-litre air receiver
- New pipe bridges with walkways, which we had designed and fabricated
- 5,500m of bottling-line pipework, comprising steam and condensate, in carbon steel
- Beer lines, DAL, CO2, CIP, glycol, compressed air and caustic in stainless steel
- Three new water systems: process, service and product.
Health & safety
We worked over 135,000 hours with zero lost-time accidents. To achieve this, we collaborated closely with our client and the sub-contractors and ensured all notices were in Amharic as well as English.
Shipping challenges
Since Ethiopia is landlocked, most goods had to be shipped via sea to Djibouti. This involved 32 containers (40ft and 20ft) which were then transported by road to the site. This included the 36-tonne boiler and the 45-tonne containerised generator. There were also eight smaller air-freight shipments.
Energy conservation
We worked hard to reduce and recover energy usage, enabling us to cut costs and the carbon footprint. For example:
- For the first time in Africa, we installed energy-efficient LED lighting in the bottling hall, which also quadrupled the lamp life (compared to metal halide)
- A Donaldson after-cooler and heat exchanger was installed to recover heat from the compressed air lines, in turn feeding into the hot well. The condensate is also recovered and returned to the hot well, which is then fed into the boiler as pre-heated water.
