Visualization and control of malt production at the Hodonice Malting Plant

The Hodonice Malting Plant is situated in the traditional agricultural area in the South Moravian region near the city of Znojmo, close to the Czech-Austrian border. In 2009, an extensive reconstruction of the malting plant was carried out. The reconstruction included the construction of a new malt kiln and the modernization of the building used for the germination of barley. Thanks to the reconstruction, the production capacity more than doubled (from 45,000 tons to 100,000 tons of malt per year). With such production, the Hodonice Malting Plant ranks with the largest malt producers in the South Moravian region.

Control system

A new SCADA-based control system, Reliance 4, was installed during the reconstruction of the malting plant. It provides control of the whole malt-production process. The Reliance SCADA system was installed to provide reliable monitoring and control of the malt production processes and facilities. The PROTECO company was responsible for installing Reliance in the Hodonice Malting Plant.

There are two control computers with the Reliance software installed used for controlling
and monitoring the malt production process. These two computers are located in the main control room. The first control computer (Control PC 1) communicates directly with all Tecomat TC700 PLCs, logs data to databases on its hard drive, and provides data and alarms/events (real-time and historical) for the visualization running on the second control computer (Control PC 2). Communication between the two control computers is provided over the local network. The Tecomat PLC devices are used for the control of the belt conveyors, steeping process, germination process, kiln process, and the process of separating rootlets. The second control computer (Control PC 2) logs data to databases on network storage and provides data for other computers that are used to monitor or control the particular processes over the local network. On top of that, the visualization can be displayed on an LCD screen for the CEO, main technologist, and service engineer.

Examples of visualization windows

Visualization of the kiln process

Visualization of the system used for the steeping of barley

Visualization of the system used for separating rootlets

Parameter set-up of the germination process