Design and job supervision for the new construction of a grain drying plant and a transfer system of by-products in the agro industry and more specifically in the animal feed milling.

The project includes a 30,000 metric tons per year of grain drying plant using a state-of-the-art dryer having a capacity of 50 tons per hour with a new on-line "dry-aeration" system.

The project consists more specifically of the following:

Grain drying plant

• capacity of 30,000 metric tons per year;
• capacity of 750 tons of humid grains;
• capacity of 600 tons of semi-humid grains;
• capacity of 4000 tons of dry grains; and
• system of calibration and cleaning of the grain.

Bulk terminal

• capacity of receiving rail cars and/or trucks having a capacity of 220 metric tons per hour of meal product;
• continuous weigh scaling system of incoming products;
• rail car receiving system;
• new 2500 metric tons capacity silo of soybean meal and canola meal including a mechanical self-unloading device; and
• fast bulk load out truck having silos above and a weigh scale.

Design and job supervision.

Complete rework of dust collector room of a 110,000 ft 3/min. capacity used for spray dryers at the Agropur cheese manufacturing plant in Granby.

The project includes:

• increase the filtering surface ratio;
• improve maintenance personnel ergonomics;
• find a simple solution to fix the filtering bags;
• improve top of bags ties;
• reduce risks of fire; and
• increase system accessibility.

Design, drawings and supervision of a new production line of soft cheese, and associated services including supervision of the works done in processing, electricity, control, building and civil.

Pilot study, final design, job supervision.

Major chocolate plant expansion with the addition of three new production lines allowing to double the production.

The project, done by using "fast track" method includes:

• storing and pneumatic transportation of dry ingredients;
• storing and pumping liquids (ingredients and finished products);
• sugar storing and handling system;
• micro-ingredients system;
• computerized mixing system;
• refining, conches;
• mechanical process;
• architecture, structure, etc;
• chocolate packaging system;
• ventilation;
• cooling and heating system for the process.

Design and drawings for the installation of a cocoa liquor melting station in St-Hyacinthe plant including melter relocation from St-Albans plant, process and services piping design, room layout and design, pipe pigging system and work supervision.

Sotecma engineered many modifications to the existing plant in order to increase its capacity, reduce contamination and get much better results on efficiency of the plant.

The project involves the following:

• a complete new sugar mechanical refining system prior to the process to increase conching capacity;
• increase efficiency on the cooling system for the liquor reservoir and conches;
• modification to the batching system that uses more bins directly above the batching scale;
• addition of new minor batching system to improve efficiency on the batching; and
• review of the deficient pneumatic handling system in order to speed up the process to minimize down time and to reduce product degradation.

Engineering and contract management for the complete dismantling of a chocolate confectionery plant located in New-Jersey. The project consisted more specifically of getting the maximum value through closing operation of the above-mentioned plant by servicing few satellite process plants among the Barry Callebaut group.

More specifically, the Sotecma involvement were the following:

• field management of the dismantling operations;
• demolition supervision for works related to the building;
• job coordination for reuse of many of the process equipment to be recuperated by other plants among the group; and
• follow-up on the cost of the demolition work.

Design, drawings and job supervision in the field to supply a new hopper to store malt before the beer making process. The project consisted in changing the existing hopper for a new one which would offer the following characteristics:

• ensure uniform and constant flow of malt from the new hopper;
• rapid and complete flow of malt from the hopper at every batch;
• reliable system with performance guarantee; and
• system having good control on the operation between each batch.

Study, design and project supervision.

Energy study, design, and job follow-up on five dust collectors at the Montreal plant. Two out of five dust collector units were removed, thus saving 250 HP of motor and 60,000 ft 3/min. of air.

The upgrade of the grain terminal included the following:

• removal of two units;
• rework of the systems;
• recalibration of all air volumes and cfm;
• reduction of products wasted; and
• energy saving

Design, engineering, drawing and job supervision of a new bulk load out station filling trucks of finished products.

The project consisted of the following:

• layout of bulk handling equipment;
• floating concrete foundation for the new silos;
• structural steel to support the silos;
• one set of 8 bins 35 metric tons each; and
• three new drag conveyors, self-cleaning type, having each a capacity of 220 metric tons per hour.

The plant includes the following:

• A 80 tons/hr grain dryer
• Bulk handling receiving system
• Storage silos
• Shipping bins at load out
• Truck scale

The newly designed plant has the following characteristics:

• Bulk receiving system from truck
• Bulk receiving system from railcar
• Screening system
• Batch mixing system
• Two main bagging lines

Design and project supervision.

The project consists of modifying two existing concrete silos in order to accomodate storage and handling of bran and short with a fast loading systems.

The system includes a complete bulk handling system with a high capacity of 250 tons per hour for bran and short.

It also includes:

• one double articulated conveying arm;
• telescopic chute;
• pneumatic handling system;
• dust collection system; and
• electrical and controls.

The project had to be achieved in existing conditions without stopping flour mill production.

The following expertise was necessary for this project:

• storing in concrete silos;
• pneumatic handling system;
• dust collecting;
• equipment layout; and
• electricity and controls.

Design and pilot study.

Soya beans mechanical oil extraction plant, using presses having a 100 tons capacity per week.

The project includes the following:

• grain receiving & storage of beans;
• thermal conditioning;
• drying of beans;
• extrusion and pressing equipments;
• cooling of the meals; and
• bulk load out of meals.

Soya bean mechanical pressing plant to produce cold pressed soybean oil.

The plant is modular and can treat initially 100 tons per day. It includes:

• cleaning and storage of beans;
• thermal conditioning;
• bean grading;
• shell separation;
• extrusion;
• pressing;
• oil degumming; and
• storage of meal.

The design of the plant is modular. It can easily expand in the future only by adding extruders and presses.

Design and plant construction works follow-up. Specially designed plant to treat soya and canola using the same basic equipments. There are only two plants of this type in the whole world. The plant has a production capacity of 200 metric tons per day. The mechanical oil extraction plant includes the following:

• seeds or beans storage;
• thermal conditioning;
• first cold pressing;
• second pressing;
• oilcake packaging;
• oil filtering;
• oil storage; and
• storage bins for meals.