1.

Introduction

Beverage has an ancient history. This concept was developed since the beginning of the 16th
century. Human desire increases with increase in civilization and development. Man is not satisfied
with just food he eats, so he desires some flavors and new taste. He desires refreshment when he
eats and drinks. This has given birth to the beverage products. Finally, beverage products have
been a part of civilization in the human society.
Beverage covers a wide range of liquor and drinks. From non-alcoholic drinks like carbonated
drinks, tea, coffee and juice to alcoholic beverages like beer, wine and spirit, beverage industry is
a big industry associated directly with the public’s food and drinking habit. Traditional drinks like
tea, coffee and traditional wines are taken the symbols of human civilization and they are being
used in almost every society around the globe from the very ancient periods. These drinks are the
part of our daily drinking habit.
Wine is considered to be third most consumed liquid after water and beer. It is reported that the
world consumed about 240 million hectoliters of wine in 2014 only. In Nepal, the practice of wine
drinking culture has been recently transcended from western culture though various forms of wine
were already in practice in many cultures of Nepalese society. The increasing number of Nepalese
people drinking wine shows the string influence of western culture in Nepal. Many young
generation prefer wine over beer and other beverages. According to a report, 900,000 liters of wine
was consumed in Nepal in 2012.
With the adaptation of wine drinking culture among Nepalese people, the wine industries in Nepal
seem to have flourished in the past few years. More than half-a-dozen brands of Nepal made wines
are available in the market and has been able to capture more than 30% of the market. Within the
short period of time of about five years, the consumers of Nepali wines have grown significantly.
Where no one used to take a glance at the Nepal made wine bottle five years ago, around 100,000
bottles of Nepal wines are on demand in the market each month with the number increasing
significantly over time. The good taste and high quality of Nepali wines have been able to pull the
consumers towards them.
Among the high quality wine manufacturers in the Nepalese wine industries is Royal Kathmandu
Himalaya Beverage Pvt. Ltd. which we visited for our research.
The purpose of this research is to study about the technologies and the instrumentation systems
that are implemented in the wine manufacturing process and to propose the new system, equipment
and methods which when implemented in the manufacturing process help increase the rate and
quality while decrease the cost of the overall production.
2. Overview of the Industrial Plant
Royal Kathmandu Himalaya Beverage Pvt. Ltd is a Nepal based winery located in Sanga, Kavre.
It is a renowned and first commercial winery situated near Kathmandu valley. It is a medium scale
industrial plant. The plant consisted of different manufacturing units, each unit performing specific
tasks. In some of these units, the tasks were completely performed by human (manual) while other
units needed only a little amount of human intervention (semi-automatic). Some of semi-automatic
processes included crushing, pressing and settling, fining, filtering and bottling while manual
processes included pumping, checking culture environment and checking unfiltered fruit contents.

2.1. Block Diagram of the Plant

2.2. Manufacturing Process

The wine manufacturing process, also known as vinification, is the production of wine, starting
with selection of the grapes or other fruits and ending with bottling the finished wine. The overall
wine making process constituted of the following steps:

I.Crushing:
Crushing is the process when gently squeezing the berries and breaking the skins to start to liberate
the contents of the berries. Destemming is the process of removing the grapes from the rachis (the
stem which holds the grapes).The grapes are crushed using a huge mechanical crusher and the
stem are removed.

II. Primary Fermentation:

In primary (alcoholic) fermentation, crushed grapes, juices, skins and seeds are put into a tank and
sugar water is mixed along with yeast addition. The mixture is diluted with pure drinking water to
maintain the concentration ratio. The storage tanks used in the factory are plastic tanks. Then the
mixture is left for fermentation. Most red wines derive their color from grape skins and therefore
contact between the juice and skins is essential for color extraction. Red wines are produced by
destemming and crushing the grapes into a tank and leaving the skins in contact with the juice
throughout the fermentation. Most white wines are processed without destemming or crushing and
are transferred from picking bins directly to the press. In some circumstances winemakers choose
to crush white grapes for a short period of skin contact, usually for three to 24 hours.

III. Maceration:
The cap of the skins are pushed down or pumped over every morning and evening. The temperature
of the mixture is monitored during this process until the solution temperature reaches 22 to 25
degree Celsius. It creates favorable environment for rapid yeast growth. It is one of the most
important step and a bit negligence can degrade the quality of wine produced. It requires constant
attention and consumes a lot of manpower.

IV. Pressing and Settling:

Pressing is the act of applying pressure to grapes or pomace in order to separate juice or wine from
grapes and grape skins. Presses act by positioning the grape skins or whole grape clusters between
a rigid surface and a movable surface and slowly decrease the volume between the two surfaces.
In this step, a machine is used for separating the juice from the mixture from the maceration
process. The cap of the skins are pressed and settled to extract the juice. The solid waste obtained
after the process are used for making compost manure. The extracted juice is then ready for
racking.

V. Secondary Fermentation and Aging:

During the secondary (malolactic) fermentation and aging process, which takes three to six
months, the fermentation continues very slowly. The wine is kept under an airlock to protect the
wine from oxidation. Proteins from the grape are broken down and the remaining yeast cells and
other fine particles from the grapes are allowed to settle. The result of these processes is that the
originally cloudy wine becomes clear. The wine can be racked during this process to remove the
lees. Malolactic fermentation usually results in an increase on the pH of the wine. This should be
monitored and not allowed to rise above a pH of 3.55 for whites or a pH of 3.80 for reds. pH can
be reduced roughly at a rate of 0.1 units per 1 gram/liter of tartaric acid addition.

VI. Fining and Filtering:

This process is carried in a steel tank. It is automated so that it checks the pH, alcohol content and
the temperature of the wine. Different batches of wine can be mixed before bottling in order to
achieve the desired taste. The winemaker can correct perceived inadequacies by mixing wines
from different grapes and batches that were produced under different conditions. These
adjustments can be as simple as adjusting acid or tannin levels, to as complex as blending different
varieties or vintages to achieve a consistent taste. Then some preservative like sulfur dioxide are
added.
Filtration in wine making is used to accomplish two objectives, clarification and microbial
stabilization. In clarification, large particles that affect the visual appearance of the wine are
removed. In microbial stabilization, organisms that affect the stability of the wine are removed
therefore reducing the likelihood of re-fermentation or spoilage. Clarification of the wine take
place naturally by putting the wine into refrigeration at 35°F (2°C). The wine takes about a month
to settle and it is clear. No chemicals are needed.

VII. Bottling:
A final dose of sulfite is added to help preserve the wine and prevent unwanted fermentation in
the bottle. Before filling wines, the bottles are washed thoroughly in the washing machine that
splashes water mixed with cleaning agents inside inverted bottles while moving on a rotating belt.
The wine is then filled in the bottles automatically by the filling machine. The filling machine
consists of outlet valves that can detect the presence of bottle on it and is capable of closing the
valves automatically when the bottle is completely filled. These wine filled bottles then are sealed
with a synthetic corks and screw-caps. The final step is adding a capsule to the top of the bottle
which is then pressed for a tight seal. They are then labeled automatically when passed through
the labelling machine. Labelling machine imprints product batch number, manufactured date and
date of expiry. Finally, the wine bottles are ready to be packed and distributed to the market.
2.3. Current Technical Problem
This wine factory is established recently and it is under development. Some of the process are
automated while some vulnerable process are manual. The human error in those process can cause
a great degradation in quality of wine and may be a subject of reputation of the company. The
limitation that we found during our visit in the factory are:
 There is no instrumentation based automated system during maceration process. All the
process of pumping and pushing down are carried manually. Temperature reading for yeast
growth are checked manually.
 The addition of sugar water and the maintenance of the mixture ratio is done manually. So
the quality of wine may vary from tank to tank.
 Cleaning grapes, racking and mixing water for dilution are done manually. So there may
be a question of hygiene and cleanliness.
 Plastic tanks are used to carry most of the process instead of oak barrels or steal tanks.
 Washing of bottle are done manually and seemed time consuming.

3. Proposed MBI System

3.1 Block Diagram

Fig : Block Diagram of Mixing System

Fig : Block Diagram Of Agitating System

Fig : Block Diagram Of Washing System

3.2 Description
Our proposed system consists of following steps:
1. Crushing
The crushing of Grapes is done using mechanical crusher after washing the grapes. The
stems are manually removed to make sure no impurities are present. It is necessary to do it
manually as it is very sensitive. A slight impurity of stem in the juice could cause a drastic
change in the quality of the wine. Thus, it is better to do it manually.
2. Mixing System
It is a 4 tanked system, out of which 3 tanks are supposed to hold sugar solution, liquid
yeast and water, one in each of the tank while the 4th one holds the juice extracted after the
crushing process which is also known as a Mixing Tank. The 3 tanks are connected to the
Mixing tank via three to one valve pump which are controlled by the microprocessor. First the
valve from sugar solution is opened and the required amount of Sugar Solution is transferred
to the Mixing Tank. Then the valve of Yeast Tank is opened after closing the valve of sugar
solution. The required yeast solution is now transferred to the Mixing Tank. Finally, water is
also transferred to the Mixing Tank to dilute the given solution to the required value. The
amount of liquid to be transferred to the Mixing Tank is controlled by Microcontroller.
3. Agitating System
Then the raw wine from mixture tank is pumped into next tank. The agitator system have
temperature controlled switches. There are 5 interconnected tanks via five to one valve pump.
First the temperature of the mixture is checked. If the temperature is 20 to 25 degree Celsius,
it is pumped to the next tank otherwise the motor is on for agitation until the temperature
reaches the required value. In this way, the cyclic process runs until the first level fermentation
process completes. The timer is set for pumping from one tank to other. The temperature
reading controls the working state of the agitator motor and the connected valve. As soon as
the agitator motor stops, the valve opens and the motor is on for pumping into other tank.
4. Pressing and Settling
The existing system is well managed and thus same will be used for the future purpose.
5. Malo-Lactic Fermentation and Aging
The existing system is good enough to carry out these processes.
6. Fining and Filtering
The existing system is already automatic which controls the pH, concentration of alcohol,
amount of other ingredients and add the essentials of the wine. The wine produced after
this process is ready for bottling.
 7. Bottle Washing
Bottles are placed in a rotating disc like structure which are run by a motor. Continual
loading and unloading of bottle by human power is hectic and unnecessary. Thus a Bottle
loading and unloading unit are designed which is controlled by a microprocessor. The
bottle loading unit places the bottle in the disc, which is send for washing to the washer
unit and once washed is collected by a Bottle pick up unit. The timing for loading and
unloading are controlled by a microprocessor.
8. Bottling
The existing system in bottling and levelling is quite effective. So it is not needed to
propose a new system.

3.3 System Flowchart

Fig: Flow Diagram Of Mixing System

Fig : Flow Diagram Of Agitating System
Fig : Flow Diagram Of Washing Unit