DAUSCH Technologies GmbH

For years, our “LiquiGuard” program has offered bottling companies of non-alcoholic beverages an opportunity to precisely measure and visualize even the smallest amounts of all relevant ingredients: total acid, caffeine, raw material concentration, flavors, important sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K, saccharin), B vitamins (B2, B3, B6), Na benzoate as well as K sorbate or near water flavors. This is made possible by unique optical spectroscopy methods that no other manufacturer offers to determine the ingredients in this form.

The LiquiGuard Gen3 system continuously measures the beverage flow every ten seconds, processes the sample immediately and displays the result clearly in tables or graphs on screens: smartphone, tablet or PC. This means continuous, fully automated quality monitoring of all relevant beverage parameters. No more manual sampling, no more waiting for the laboratory - instead fully automatic, comprehensive monitoring of all important beverage ingredients.

With the “Quality Dashboard” module, LiquiGuard Gen3 can not only process its “own” quality values, but also all data from all manufacturers involved: bottle weight, closure and torque, tightness of cans (folding parameters), carbon dioxide content, Brix, conductivity, and much more. This means that the operating personnel on the line as well as in the syrup room, in the quality assurance laboratory or even on the move can query and check all values ​​of the entire filling line in real time at any time.

With “LiquiGuard Gen3” and the “Quality Dashboard” DAUSCH offers a web application that has taken an enormous step forward in quality in the non-alcoholic beverage industry.

Many large breweries measure the levels of diacetyl and pentanedione daily to determine the perfect value for the end of fermentation in the so-called “cold block”. The values ​​are analyzed in the laboratory using a gas chromatograph (GC) and an ECD detector. Since measurements are usually only taken once a day, it is only possible to say very imprecisely when which tank is “ripe” for bottling. In addition, this process is very time-consuming and labor-intensive.

“BeerGuard”, on the other hand, automatically measures every 20 minutes, around the clock, and determines the desired values. The “GC IMS” method used has an incredibly low detection limit of diacetyl and pentanedione of 1 ppb (parts per billion). This is absolutely unmatched in process measurement on the market.

The system consists of a “Tank Sampling Module” (TSM), where beer samples are taken from up to 16 fermentation tanks per TSM module. Double-seat valves prevent cross-contamination between fermentation tanks. In the next station, degassing and filtering takes place. In the “transition module” a conversion to diacetyl takes place, after which the exact values ​​of diacetyl and pentanedione are determined in the GC-IMS to determine the end point of the fermentation.

The aim is to use a “BeerGuard” to automatically measure up to 64 fermentation tanks during the ongoing process. All values ​​are clearly displayed in tables and diagrams on displays. This complete automation of quality control in the cold block achieves significantly higher productivity. For the brewery, the fermentation time is reduced enormously and the output is clearly increased. By “moving away from sample analysis” towards automated measurement in the process, personnel are also saved and all measured values ​​are almost error-free.

In addition to water and fruit juice drinks, non-alcoholic drinks are now dominated by light or sugar-free cola drinks as well as those with additional benefits such as ACE, sports or energy drinks with vitamins, minerals or proteins. They are all mixtures of many components, based on a base material that is mixed together with numerous ingredients and water to form postmix or ready-made syrup. It is extremely important for the bottling companies that this syrup always corresponds exactly to the recipe and taste that the customer is used to before water is added. While quality control of postmix and ready-made syrup used to be sufficient as a sum parameter, today we want to know exactly about each individual component: Is it present in the exact quantity and are all the ingredients included?
SyrupGuard Gen3 offers the prerequisites for answering all questions positively: every ingredient is checked at the molecular level in just a few seconds, either as a batch version in the syrup room or – and this is completely new – online immediately after the inline blender.
The same system is used as with “LiquiGuard”, only not with the ready-made drink, but with the ready-made syrup. The primary goal is to prevent incorrect mixing!
And the other big additional benefit: If the online system is running smoothly, it can be taken out of the process for a few minutes to analyze the manual sample from another syrup or batch tank for the release process. Before and after the manual analysis, all lines and measuring cells are meticulously flushed, and after a few minutes online operation is automatically resumed.
SyrupGuard Gen3 offers an exact check of the correct mixture and all components, the security that all specifications are adhered to precisely, as well as the possibility of running the process online and thus the chance to save time and money.