Tortilla, Chips and Snack Food
Quickdraft’s Venturi Food Exhaust System technology helps to eliminate maintenance, unstable exhaust, and downtime as a result of grease, oil, or other buildup of materials on the exhaust fan wheel during tortilla, chip and snack food processing. The addition of the Quickdraft Demister Unit eliminates the buildup of oil or grease on the roof. The Demister System’s process includes velocity reduction and centrifugal separation, water spray scrubbing and demister pad filtration. Carbon filter housings also can be added to reduce odor emissions.
CASE STUDY: DEMISTER FILTRATION SYSTEM HELPS WORLD'S LARGEST TORTILLA MANUFACTURER
Background
Intensa Gruma is the engineering division of Gruma, S.A.B. de C.V, the world’s largest manufacturer of tortillas and tortilla related products. Over the last 10 years, Quickdraft has worked with Intensa Gruma to build exhaust systems for production equipment in their Mission Foods Corporation. Relying on our long-term relationship, Intensa Gruma turned to us when its Monterrey, Mexico plant began to have substantial oil accumulation from their frying processes, on their roof.
Problem
The company began production using a water filtration system, and observed a large amount of oil accumulation on the rooftop of their production facility. The oil buildup began to cause increased plant maintenance issues along with higher labor costs to keep the rooftop clean. In addition to being a drain on the facility’s maintenance resources, it put this Mission Foods plant at risk of non-compliance with the socially and environmentally responsible goals it set for itself.
Solution
A natural part of the tortilla chip frying process is the need to quickly and cleanly exhaust excess oil. The Demister Filtration System was the answer to eliminate the buildup of oil or grease on rooftops and relieve the maintenance issues. The fact that the Demister Unit is self-cleaning and has no moving parts in the air stream made it an even more attractive option. The process took less than two months to complete and the installation contractor was seamless and quick.
Results
At the Monterrey plant, the results have been tremendous and nearly instantaneous. The reduction in accumulated oil on the rooftop has already translated to fewer maintenance hours, while giving Mission Foods the ability to deliver on its environmental commitments. The initial Demister Filtration System has proven so successful that two additional units were ordered and installed.