Bottle washing and filling plant
The challenge:
Filling is the last step of the beer brewing process and the first step of the packaging. Sanitary conditions at this stage have a direct impact on the shelf life of bottled beer.
The beer producers endeavour to deliver pure, fresh, tasty, and natural beverages with a long minimum shelf life with no preservatives or additional thermal treatment. Other marketing challenges are the variety of containment materials (glassware, PET, tinplate/aluminium, or the inside coated cardboard boxes) and long distribution paths.
Industrial sanitation (washing and disinfection) of the whole filling line is therefore a top priority in the industrial hygiene of beverage production.
With the conventional cleaning operating technology, the filler is emptied and flushed, disinfected, flushed again and afterwards re-filled. The complete cleaning procedure is therefore very time-consuming, cost-intensive and reduces the plant productivity.
An assortment of chemicals is used for aseptic filling or traditional custom filling. These chemicals cause high wear and corrosion of the filling equipment.
The solution:
Sinowatek offers the INNOWATECH Anolyte® for the disinfection of filler equipment e.g. rinser, filler, bottle washer etc. INNOWATECH Anolyte® tradename SulafectTM is produced electrolytically from a high pure aqueous salt solution on-site with the Aquadron® system.
The disinfectant differs in its physical properties (colour, specific weight, density, viscosity, melting and freezing point) not much from pure water, as it contains only a low concentration of free chlorine. INNOWATECH Anolyte® tradename SulafectTM is a pH neutral, bactericidal, virucidal and fungicidal solution. Because of its low application concentration, it is odourless and tasteless, and, unlike traditional chlorine or chlorine dioxide disinfectants, it is gentle on materials it comes into contact with.
SulafectTM operates at lower concentrations but achieves higher germ-killing rates than conventional disinfectants. It effectively kills legionella, pseudomonads, and other germs, which can be especially prevalent in natural drink products. In addition, while preventing the formation of new ones.
With the bottle shower and SulafectTM system, disinfection of the filler table and surrounding areas is performed continuously. Thus, interruptions of production for in-between cleanings and disinfection can be avoided. The productivity of the plant increases, and water consumption is reduced.
The Aquadron® systems and the active agent Anolyte® (SulafectTM) have already proven reliable in the beer brewing industry for years.
The benefit to the client:
Main advantages of using SulafectTM as a disinfectant:
- Safe and quick elimination of all germs.
- Better microbiological control.
- Complete replacement of all chemicals used for conventional disinfection.
- Short exposure times (5 min.) for full impact.
- No re-contamination by rinse water residues.
- Safe application in the production, filling, and packaging department, with no corrosion on stainless steel and no wear on elastomers.
Main advantages of using the Aquadron® system:
- Handling and storage of dangerous chemicals or substances is eliminated.
- Due to the neutral pH no wastewater pollution.
- Reduction of AOX/COD – values in the wastewater plant
- Low operation and maintenance costs,
- For the operation only high-quality salt and electricity are needed.
- Reduced water consumption due to less cleaning and disinfection flushing.
- Easy operation with an intuitive user interface.
- Minimised storage and logistic costs.
- Uncomplicated integration into existing systems.
- Short installation and start-up time.
- With this technology beverages can be filled in their natural form without adding any preservatives.
- Reduction of operating costs while achieving high hygienic standards.
