Barnum Mechanical Inc. hosted an interview with the CEO of The Better Meat Co. to discuss how Barnum Mechanical and Automation Group supported their new production facility.
Challenge
Many food processors create a proof of concept in several sizing stages before they build a full-scale processing facility. Designing an automated processing facility requires flexibility in the design and the ability to constantly improve the system with things discovered through research and development efforts. This is the story of how The Better Meat Co. partnered with Barnum Mechanical Inc. and Automation Group to design, build, and automate a full-scale processing system at The Better Meat Co.’s new mycoprotein fermentation facility in Sacramento, California. Industry partner Barnum Mechanical teamed up with Automation Group to support an expedited completion timeline.
Solution
The Better Meat Co. needed a full-scale processing system built from the ground up. The first step was understanding The Better Meat Co.’s current laboratory operations and what they were expecting to do in the new industrial scoped system. The project team assessed existing equipment, current system requirements, and collaborated with various stakeholders to best design the full-scale processing system, keeping alternative meat processing standards and scalable performance capabilities top-of-mind. “We have never built a fermentation plant before, whereas Barnum and Automation Group had.” explains Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co. “They had a lot of experience that was very helpful in informing the decisions that we would end up making. And many of these decisions I don’t think would have been so simple for us to figure out on our own . . . They were partners with us in helping us decide what type of a design we wanted in the first place.”
The project team leveraged their expertise in automated control systems and process design to create a custom solution. The project team connected new Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLCs to Inductive Automation’s Ignition HMI application and SCADA software over an Ethernet switch. During this phase, multiple experts from both engineering firms collaborated and programmed simultaneously. The project team accomplished a software redundant control system that was capable of developer remote access support, redundant databases, recipe controls, historic data logs, and interactive reports. All of this supported The Better Meat Co.’s ability to control efficiency, remain flexible to meet new production cycles, and make real-time, data-driven decisions.
“We need lots of flexibility and variability in our facility because everything that we’re doing on our pilot scale is designed to inform what we may do at our future fermentation facility. And so, we don’t want just one process that we could lock in here.” added Shapiro. “What we’ve done with Barnum and with Automation Group is to create a plant that actually has a lot of flexibility in terms of what we’re able to do . . . The system that Barnum and Automation Group helped to build allows us to experiment, simultaneously with different types of feedstocks so that we can sterilize different media in order to run different types of fermentations.”
Results
In a few short months, the automated system was capable of successfully developing The Better Meat Co. products on demand. “. . . If you can afford to add automation, it’s a good idea to do it,” endorses Shapiro when asked his thoughts on the value of automation. To date, the new system continues to support The Better Meat Co. and has not experienced a technical outage since its deployment.
Barnum Mechanical and Automation Group enjoyed the opportunity to partner on this project to deliver a flexible system that is scalable for The Better Meat Co.’s growing operations. To learn more about the project and the customer’s satisfaction, we welcome you to watch the interview with Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co.
