Innovative Solution for MSG Manufacturing Challenges

Yokogawa partnered with a leading, global, industrial food & ingredient producer to address a critical production line challenge.

Introduction

Yokogawa worked with a leading, global, industrial food & ingredient producer manufacturing a well-known product, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), along with noodles, snacks, and sauces. MSG is made from corn starch, sugar cane, and Cassava, all containing glucose sugars.

Figure 1: MSG manufacturing plant

During fermentation, added microbes will consume glucose and then release glutamic acid sour. After fermentation, the sour will transition to the neutralization process to produce the crystallization that results in the finished, dried MSG products.

Figure 2: Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is produced by fermentation

Challenge

In the neutralization process, controlling the flow is essential to ensure the blending is done properly. However, the measured liquid containing crystal, slurry, and high viscose can easily form a coating on the magnetic flowmeter’s electrode which affects the accuracy of the flow measurement. Thus, frequent cleaning is required to maintain the stable and accurate flow measurements in traditional magnetic flowmeters.

Solution

After continued use of a traditional magnetic flowmeter, the end-user customer experienced an increase in labor and costs related to downtime that was required to clean the electrodes. Yokogawa suggested the Magnetic Flowmeter CA Series for its capacitance technology to solve the coating issues. Made of alumina ceramics, the measuring tube of the CA Series has no electrodes in contact with the measured fluid. Therefore, slurries do not cause noise and adhesive fluids do not accumulate on the electrode, thus ensuring stable measurement. In addition, the customer experienced reduced noise in the measurement due to the crystallized MSG no longer impacting the electrodes.

Figure 3: Magnetic Flowmeter CA Series

Key Benefits

• Electrodes do not contact the fluid.
• High-purity alumina ceramics measuring tube resists adhesives.
• A dot matrix display with backlight provides excellent visibility.
• The verification function easily checks the status of the meter and diagnoses issues.