How a Meat Producer Automated Its 1st Pilot Plant | Rockwell Automation

By Anees Chamarty, Lead Automation Engineer II, Thomas Crowl, Principal Engineer, and Cassy Gardner, LSW Dir. of Operations, VV, E Tech Group

A cultivated meat production facility needed to scale up from lab production to pilot scale, going from growing cells at bench-top to cultivating thousands of liters of cells. Alternative proteins, including lab-grown meats, are the new horizon of ethical, sustainable meat production. The company had a project to innovate a facility-wide control system for an alternative protein pilot plant — and get the system ready in less than 6 months from completion of design to start-up.

Specifically, cultivated meats are just emerging, with the first expected to be available within a few years. Consumers can try these products at high-end restaurants in the California Bay Area. Tickets consistently sell out in one to two days for each tasting. Cultivated meat production plants are a new frontier in the food and beverage industry, and this meat processor is one of the companies pioneering the field.

The meat producer worked closely with our firm, Rockwell Automation Gold System Integrator E Tech Group, and we helped guide it through identifying the needs for its first industrial automation system. Company leaders asked us to help plan, design, implement, test and support an end-to-end, turnkey automation solution for this new facility.

New Automation Tech Required

Because this was a new installation of cutting-edge technology, there were numerous challenges on this project. We were all in uncharted waters.

Understanding that nothing in this industry had yet been designed and executed on this scale, we all knew the entire process would remain fluid. Change and adaptation would be a constant theme throughout planning and implementation.

And knowing what was being produced was designed for human consumption, it was imperative that the developed solution exceeded industry and federal guidelines and standards. We needed to make sure this facility’s automation system took the unknown out of the cultivated meat-production process.

Project Design & Modern Distributed Control

This project's design needed to be just as creative as the client’s endeavors in this new field of meat production. Communication and flexibility were key in pulling off this leading-edge, facility-wide automation system integration.

Process Design. With the plant being a pilot and the organization being a start-up, the process engineering environment was naturally ever evolving and dynamic. Our E Tech Group team kept up with the constant changing strategies, provided technical guidance in streamlining the design so it could be automated, and clearly communicated changes to the process design as they went live. This helped create realistic delivery expectations.

Process Outline. We outlined the process as follows:

Media Prep.
CIP (Clean in Place).
SIP (Steam in Place). 
Inoculation. 
Media filtration. 
Cell growth. 
Seeding/Circulation.

Pin Charts were developed and maintained as part of the design effort. These defined the valve alignment and various schemes for Equipment Modules corresponding to each phase step, covering a matrix of more than 100 phase steps and more than 300 devices, more than 200 valves, and an array of control modules.

The team also worked to design customized control loops, involving Cascade methodology, for pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) and temperature control (both vessel and jacket) of the bioreactors. These complex algorithms use shared equipment and phase-specific control strategies.  

The process design also involved deciphering functionality of specialized equipment such as mix proof valves. The equipment module developed for this valve comprises 9 schemes in its operation. 

Electrical Design. Electrical design consisted of panel layout and network layout.

A new DCS was implemented in a virtualized environment using the FactoryTalk View SE and PlantPAx system. [CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.]

Automation Products. Our process automation team had a daunting task at hand: to synthesize the enormous design and get the system ready for production in less than 6 months. The automation effort included the following tasks:

PLC Program Design, using Rockwell Automation PlantPAx^®5.0, ControlLogix^® L85 EP, and Studio Logix Designer 5000^® v.3
- Mix of 4.x and embedded 5.0 process objects.
- Function block and ladder logic used to program control and equipment modules. 
- Structured Text Programming for Phases.
  - Phase parameter definitions. 
  - Hold, abort and stop logic. 
  - Operator prompts and reporting logic. 
  - Linking/messaging with parallel phases.
- Equipment Module Programming.
  - Scheme propagation. 
  - State model. 
  - Permissive. 
  - Interlocks.
Valve Supervisor Equipment Modules 
Online Configuration Tool — Development and Maintenance for Bulk Import of IO 
- Handshaking with OEM Skids.
  - Message instruction programming. 
  - Produce, consume tags.
- Batch Programming using FactoryTalk^® Batch.
  - Area model configuration — S88 standardized.
  - Recipe development — unit operations and unit procedures.

DCS Design & Implementation

A new distributed control system (DCS) was implemented in a virtualized environment using the Rockwell Automation FactoryTalk View Site Edition (SE) and PlantPAx DCS (see illustration). The system is scalable and sustainable, because the infrastructure supports future growth for the pilot plant.

Components of the new system included:

SCADA server that hosts the human-machine interface (HMI) server, data server, alarm and event server. 
ThinManager and terminal server that host thin client sessions for HMI operations on the plant floor.
Batch Server with ISA-88 standard batch engine for recipe development. 
Network directory server. 
SQL server. 
SmartSights (formerly Win-911 Software) remote alarm notification to preconfigured user groups via FactoryTalk Alarm and Events. 
FactoryTalk Historian SE Server.

These components provided the following features:

Graphics developed based on the ISA 101 standard. 
Alarms based on ISA 18.2 standard. 
Node security. 
Scope for external skid integration. 
Custom graphics for external skid integration.
Centrifuge.  
Onsite Support & Equipment Testing

Male quality-control worker writing notes about Basil seed with fruit on beverage manufacturing bottling line.

Podcast & Industry Perspective Q&A

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In this insightful Q&A about upgrading legacy systems to a modern distributed control system (DCS), The Journal From Rockwell Automation and Our PartnerNetwork's Executive Editor Theresa Houck talks with Nick Kristan, Process Solutions Manager, and Scott Hayes, DCSNext Portfolio Manager, both at Rockwell Automation, about a repeatable process that helps ensure a successful upgrade. Read the interview (2-page pdf).

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In addition to the unparalleled in-house development effort, the E Tech Group team has provided hundreds of hours of hands-on onsite support to the client — starting from wiring checks to recipe testing. From beginning to end, our team kept up with dynamic changes happening during the wet runs, adjusting the design accordingly and re-integrating the changes into the active system. Vital processes we monitored, tested and facilitated included: 

Loop Checks.
Loop Tuning.
Equipment Module Testing.
Phase Testing.
Recipe Testing.
Troubleshooting.
Operator Training.

Documentation

Documentation is key in an effective facility-wide automation system, because it allows the plant to verify that all processes are adhering to specification, products are safe for consumers, and regulatory agencies can have confidence in the products. Additionally, it allows users to analyze and identify everything that happens within the system. This has implications for standards, quality control and troubleshooting.

We developed the Functional Design Specifications for the entire process, starting from ground zero and updating all the specs based on the as-built system. In addition, our team consolidated information from various vendors — including standalone skids, construction management and piping and instrumentation vendors — so that no details would slip through the cracks.

We also helped develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) to meet the client’s production and compliance requirements. This allows the owners to better support their own system, because it's well-documented. They can find information easily and without having to bring in a control system expert — and this reduces downtime, which is inevitable in a development process for cutting-edge products such as cultivated meat.

Goals Achieved

We used our expertise in both biotech processes and automation to meet the client’s six-month timeline and help them begin producing cells as rapidly as possible. After successful completion of this project, we are proud to be part of bringing an ethical, environmentally-friendly, and cutting edge product to consumers while getting the client one step closer to commercial distribution.

With more than 600 employees across North America, E Tech Group is a Rockwell Automation Gold System Integrator Partner. It's one of the largest engineering and system integration firms in the United States. The firm provides secure, user-friendly, and sustainable long-term automation, control, and information solutions to an array of industries.

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