It does not happen very often that a local brewery invests such an amount – 16.5 million euros – in new facilities. In Purnode (Yvoir), Brasserie du Bocq, which was founded in 1858, is currently building a new bottling plant that will be connected to the brewery by a pipeline – the Zythoduc – to transport beer and water from the old to the new site. This is a major project for which Deschacht has supplied more than 500 meters of a special type of sewer pipes.
Relocation of a bottling plant
The building under construction rises at the entrance to the village of Purnode, 450 meters from the brewery that produces some 110,000 hectoliters of beer annually (including the famous ‘Blanche de Namur’). The new bottling plant of Brasserie du Bocq, supplemented by a logistics space, is expected to be ready by the end of 2021, after which the bottling activity, which was becoming increasingly cramped in the center of the village, will be ‘relocated.’ From a floor area of 650 m² for the current bottling plant and 2,000 m² for logistics, we are moving to a total area of 5,200 m² at the new site. “We couldn't afford to stop the activity of the current bottling plant, so we had to build a new building in parallel to maintain production,” explains Dimitri Delcourt, director of Brasserie du Bocq.
A powerful and durable drainage system
This industrial building will have a high load-bearing capacity on the concrete floor slabs and accommodate heavy filling and bottling machines (up to 5 tons/m²). The traditional drainage of the logistics section is in PVC. However, this is not the case for the filling and bottling department. “To efficiently and safely drain the water and the products for cleaning the machines and bottles, we needed an efficient and durable drainage system,” explains Dimitri Delcourt. “The system had to be resistant to pressure, high temperatures, thermal shocks—with very cold water following very hot water—as well as to a whole range of acidic and sodium-containing products, which can be highly corrosive when mixed with water. That is why, together with the architect and the engineering firms, we decided not to compromise on the quality of the drainage.”
PE pressure pipes SDR 11
For the realization of this special sewerage system, the Willy Naessens company, which was responsible for the construction work, enlisted the services of the general contractor Nonet. The latter used electric-welded [materials] supplied by Deschacht
HDPE SDR11 pressure pipes
. “This is an important project for us,” explains Samuel Mazzacavallo, account manager at Deschacht. “In total, we have supplied about 240 meters of pipes with Ø110, 120 meters of pipes with Ø200, and 160 meters of pipes with Ø160, as well as all accessories for assembly and installation.” “We do not often deal with this type of assignment, especially because this material is rarely used, and even less so in these diameters,” admits Alexandre Nonet, project manager at the company of the same name. The installation of these electro-welded pipes is indeed very complex and requires precision. “Special skills are needed to correctly weld the clean, dry pipes together, with perfect angles and a precise welding time.” And it is precisely there that Nonet's experience paid off. Thanks to the new bottling plant and the upgraded sewerage system, Brasserie du Bocq can face the future with peace of mind, without fear of soil contamination or stability issues caused by water pockets, subsidence, and chemicals. Dimitri Delcourt and Alexandre Nonet are very satisfied with the cooperation with Deschacht. Or as the latter puts it: “Deschacht is one of the suppliers with whom we work very regularly. The advantages of this collaboration are obvious, both in terms of service, costs, and delivery speed.”
