Application of programmable electronic flow meter for enhanced data capturing: A case study of the beverage industry in Ogun state, Nigeria

Accurate data capturing cannot be over- emphasized in modern manufacturing industries where production process automation takes over the analog operation technique. Digitalizing data-capturing techniques reduces operator bottleneck in collecting data and valuable production time by making data readily available for managerial decision- making. It eliminates the tendencies for occurrence error known with analog techniques where the operators stay awake and take the reading at the interval. This approach is highly subjective and prone to human error since the accuracy depends on the operator's mind. This paper focuses on the digitization of steam energy production and consumption in the beverage industry by incorporating an electronic flow meter programmed using HTML5 and C#. The flow meter identification and compatibility for energy digitization, were first ascertained. After that, the initial setup of the electronic flow meter was carried out, and each flow meter was wired using the digital input terminals selected for the pulse input signals. Secondly, the identified pulse input for each flow meter was programmed in the PLC, using the ladder logic programming language. The manually obtained data from the flow meter was compare with the digitized data from the server for validation using a statistical t-test at p< 0.05 on Minitab software. The results show a p-value of 0.873 and 0.993 for steam production and beverage consumption, respectively. These results indicate no significant difference between the data obtained manually and digitally. Hence, the digital data is correct, reliable, and can reproduce the manual data accurately. Finally, the results showed that ‘Digitization of Energy Production and Consumption in the Beverage Industry’ is a practicable solution to solve energy measurement problems in any establishment. This solution can also be extended to other energy utilities such as water, PMS, diesel, gas, and electricity.