In order to quantify the benefits of automation in terms of: process duration, labor, raw material usage, energy savings, environmental sustainability and production costs, a system for the automatic management of yeast nutrition during alcoholic fermentation, Avaferm® , was analyzed in comparison to the traditional approach.

The experimentation was carried out in two very different productive realities, allowing the identification of the minimum and maximum limits of variability of the data obtained.

The Avaferm® system allowed a reduction in fermentation duration of 12.5-31%, a saving in water consumption of 0.8-3.9% and in electricity consumption of around 9% and a reduction of 18-25% in labor, with a lower risk of human error that can affect process correction operations, product quality and therefore the economy. The automated system provides for a higher utilization of nutrients, up to 17.5%, and a higher oxygenation of the must with values from 32 to 53.5%. In fact, with the traditional approach it is not always possible to provide adequate amounts of nutrients to the yeast, which can lead to deficiencies and therefore to slow and/or stopped fermentations and non-optimized processes. The nutrients used by Avaferm® proved to be more expensive but more environmentally sustainable than those used in traditional fermentations with an average saving of 1.75 to 7.9 % in all impact categories analyzed.

Finally, a cost analysis conducted on 6 tanks showed the investment potential of Avaferm®, identifying a payback period, in terms of savings in production costs, in a range of 3 to 8 years.