Compact, Central, Reliable
Best cleaning results and great savings potentials with the latest KHS CIP system, the Innopro CIP C
Alfons Abels-Rümping* CIP or Cleaning in Place systems are designed for the extremely reliable removal of product residue, deposits, and harmful bacteria in beverage bottling systems. The CIP system recently developed by KHS, the Innopro CIP C (Cleaning in Place Compact), gives customers this extremely reliable cleaning performance – and much more! The Innopro CIP C is also standard container size, it helps to save water, chemicals, energy, and therefore costs, and it can be easily integrated into both new and existing filling lines in a phenomenally short time while taking up very little space. Localized operation creates many advantages With the Innopro CIP C, KHS has developed a locally active CIP system for the beverage trade which cleans not just the filler and itself but also one other process component, such as a flash pasteurizer or mixer. The advantage of this system is that the media do not have to be conveyed over long distances. This means a much lower energy consumption in comparison with conventional CIP systems, since the central position of the Innopro CIP C results in hardly any heating loss while the media are conveyed. At the same time media consumption is also cut thanks to the shorter conveying distances, and fewer mixing phases mean considerable reductions in water and cleaning media losses. For all types of filling systems The Innopro CIP C is predestined for use in every imaginable type of filling technology. Whether beer, water, soft drinks, juice, wine, or milk are to be filled into cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, or kegs, the Innopro CIP C is the cleaning system of choice. Moreover, not only can the Innopro CIP C be used for cold filling; it is equally well suited to aseptic filling, ultra-clean filling, and hot filling. * Product Management, Process Technology Competence Center, KHS GmbH, Bad Kreuznach. Phone: +49 (671) 852-2211 An investment in an Innopro CIP C is generally called for when companies in the beverage industry require a compact CIP system that offers all the advantages listed here. In medium-sized beverage plants where there is only one filling line to clean, the Innopro CIP C may be the only CIP system at the bottling plant. In large companies operating several lines with an extensive pipe system, the Innopro CIP C can exploit its advantages as a compact system operating alongside a central CIP system. The plus points of the Innopro CIP C used as an additional CIP system are that it is independent of the centrally active CIP technology and has a comparatively faster cleaning process, resulting in increased system availability as well as the savings already listed. Three tank concept The Innopro CIP C is equipped with three tanks: a caustic tank, a hot water tank, and a primary water feed tank that acts as a 'circuit isolator'. Another advantage of the primary water feed tank is that it contains the CIP primary feed pump which prevents the system from running dry. If the customer's water supply becomes overloaded, the primary water feed tank ensures there is always enough water to supply the system. For filling technology with a capacity of up to 35,000 liters per hour While the primary water feed tank always has a capacity of 1,000 liters, the hot water and caustic tanks have a capacity of over 3,000 and 4,000 liters respectively, totally in keeping with the capacity of the system as a whole. The cleaning capacity amounts to 30 or 45 m³ per hour. This means that the Innopro CIP C is ideally suited to clean filling technology equipped with up to 150 filling valves and a filling capacity of up to 35,000 liters per hour. Individually customized cleaning capacities are feasible. Packed in one container and quickly commissioned The Innopro CIP C tanks are very specifically rectangular in design. This contributes to the compact design of the system as a whole and means the Innopro CIP C can be packed into one standard-size overseas container and therefore cost-effectively shipped. To ensure its total suitability for container shipment, all of the components needed to operate the system, such as pumps, valves, heaters, media tanks, and the switch cabinet are already arranged and installed ready for operation in a stainless steel framework. Since all the components are always fully tested at the KHS plant, the Innopro CIP C can be commissioned very quickly at the beverage plant according to the Plug and Produce principle. All that is needed is to simply position the batch tank, connect the cleaning media tank, fresh water, steam, and pneumatic supplies – and the system is ready to run. Meticulous operation In the Innopro CIP C a plate heat exchanger uses saturated steam to heat the cleaning media and hot water. An electropneumatic temperature control unit sets and controls the cleaning temperatures. The primary feed pump circulates the individual cleaning media and maintains the preset cleaning pressure. CIP cleaning involves forcing product residue out of the product pipes with fresh water from the primary water feed tank and then cleaning the system with caustic. While the fresh water is immediately disposed of after the first cleaning process, the conductivity and temperature of the caustic are measured after the cleaning process. Depending on the conductivity, a decision is made whether to discard the returned caustic or return it to the caustic tank and consequently the production process. The steam-fed plate heat exchanger then reheats any recyclable caustic if necessary. The pneumatic dosing system handles the task of redosing caustic. Cleaning with caustic is followed by rinsing with hot water before the final CIP cleaning step, namely flushing the system with cold water to cool down the pipes and components. From time to time bottling plants also use CIP systems for acid cleaning to remove any deposits. If this is on the agenda, the dosing pump can be used to add acid to the hot water tank in the Innopro CIP C, from where it is then fed to the components to be cleaned. The standard equipment of the Innopro CIP C includes a dosing pump that is able to dose both caustic and, if necessary, acid. Integrating a second dosing pump for acid into the system is also a possible option to avoid changeover when acid cleaning is due. Once cleaning with acid is finished, the acid is discarded, and the system is rinsed with fresh water and hot water. The advantage here is that there is no longer any need to invest in an additional acid tank, which of course cuts the cost of the investment. In addition to cleaning the filling system and process components, the Innopro CIP C also cleans itself from time to time. In this cleaning process spray balls feed the CIP media into each of the tanks. Deliberately designed to soak every inch of the tank walls with cleaning solution and rinsing water, the spray balls achieve optimum cleaning results in the rectangular tanks. Manual or fully automatic operation optionally available When investing in the Innopro CIP C, customers can choose between manually controlled or fully automatic operation. Whereas with manual configuration the system operator has to switch on the primary feed pump and the steam and fresh water supplies, and read the displayed filling levels, tank temperatures, and conductivities of the returned cleaning media visually in order to comply with the specifications, for example, in fully automatic operation all these work steps are carried out exactly according to the recipe stored in the system. Depending on the product being filled, the specified CIP times, CIP temperatures, and cleaning media concentrations can be preset in the system and called up at the touch screen monitor as required, as can conductivities of the media to be reused. Cleaning phases and processes are visualized on the touch panel. The result is top cleaning quality tailor made to customer requirements. Extra equipment if necessary The Innopro CIP C offers more options that have been deliberately kept to a minimum to maintain the simplicity and clarity of the system. One option is to insulate the media tanks. The advantage? Yet more energy savings. The rectangular design of the Innopro CIP C media tank makes it not only easier but also much cheaper to insulate, compared to the round tanks of classic CIP systems. Moreover, customers can choose between having the tanks of the Innopro CIP C made of 304 or 316-grade stainless steel. For example, investing in the more corrosion-resistant 316-grade stainless steel is sensible if the chloride burden in the tanks during acid cleaning is particularly high. Another standard component is a steam pressure reducer upstream of the plate heat exchanger, which enables saturated steam to be delivered at a pressure of up to 10 bar. Standard includes Remote Diagnostic Service Another standard included in the Innopro CIP C is ReDiS or the Remote Diagnostic Service. Any customer needing support can connect directly to the KHS ReDiS Service Center for immediate remote analysis. Reprogramming through ReDiS is also conceivable. In this way ReDiS helps to increase the availability of the system. CIP system technology for the future The bottom line is that the Innopro CIP C does not merely offer the many advantages inherent in the system's design; it also guarantees an investment advantage of approx. 15% compared to standard CIP systems. At the same time it is totally in keeping with the current trend towards system units which are increasingly compact in design as well as economical to operate and easy to maintain. Investing in the Innopro CIP C thus always means investing in a future where the watchword "ecological footprint" will come into increasingly sharp focus.
