WO2009080349A2 - Bottling and brewing cleaning-in-process water management - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to the use of an anolyte solution and/or catolyte solution of electrochemically activated salt solutions in a cleaning-in-process system for bottling beverages.

Description

Bottling and Brewing Cleaning-in-Process Water Management

The present invention relates to on improved water management system for brewing and bottling.

One of the main problems with manufacturing high volume soft or alcoholic drinks is the large amount of water used to produce each litre of finished product. Typically for soft drinks this is a ratio of at lest 5:1 (total water : finished product) and in brewing can range from 4:1 up to 9: 1.

A large percentage of this water usage is in the area of cleaning and sanitation of filling lines, mixing systems, storage tanks and general sanitation. These regimes are usually managed by an integrated Cleaning-in-process (CIP) system which uses large amounts of expensive hot water and aggressive chemicals to clean and sanitise. These are chemicals are hazardous to handle, cause effluent management problems and due to their toxicity require very large volumes of fresh clean water to rinse the systems prior to producing a safe product for human consumption.

The greatest commercial pressure apart from the very high level of water use is the amount of time taken to clean process systems using CIP kits. This again is due to the high pressure of water required to clean and that this is usually run at very high temperature 70- 85⁰C. Lines can take up to 3 hours per shift to clean which can lead to up to 6 hours a day capacity being lost.

Thus, it is the object of the present invention to overcome above disadvantages of the prior art and to provide a water management system using lower amounts of water and energy. This object has been achieved by using aqueous anolyte as well as catolyte solutions of electrochemically activated solutions of a salt, preferably sodium chloride.

The anolyte solution generally may have a pH of about 2 to 8 and a redox potential of about +117OmV. The species present in the anolyte solution may include ClO; ClO^"; HClO; OH^"; HO₂ ^"; H₂O₂; O₃; S₂O₈ ^2" and Cl₂O₆ ^2". This solution is hereinafter called NADES.

The catholyte solution generally may have a pH of about 12 to 13. The species present in the catholyte solution may include NaOH; KOH; CA(OH)₂; Mg(OH)₂; OH^"; H₃O₂ ^"; HO₂ ^"; H₃O₂ ^"; O₂ ^"; OH^"; O₂ ^2". This solution is hereinafter called NADES-Base.

Using the NADES and NADES-Base solutions permits the, current standard, 5 step CIP regime to be reduced to a 3 or 4 step thereby saving time and chemical use.

The use of CO₂ is common to pressurise systems in bottling plants. Especially at filler heads and in supply lines greatly enhances the efficacy of the NADES used as it modifies the pH of the solution making it more acidic, due to the creation of carbonic acid, with an greatly enhanced ORP. This means that even lower levels of oxidant can be used thereby creating a safer and cheaper process.

The cleaning of re-usable packaging containers which can be glass bottles or kegs for finished products or syrups for mixing at the point of sale also utilise a large amount of hot water and chemicals. The time, amount of water, temperature of the water and the chemicals used can all be reduced. Due to the large volume of water required to produce these solutions there is a risk that water supplied is not safe to drink initially and has to be treated to make it safe for use in a product and for cleaning systems. Typically bacterial contamination and toxic chemical contamination from pesticide residues are the highest risk. Usually water polishing systems involving high level filtration and chemical treatment which subsequently has to be removed are used, these are expensive to run and lead to a water loss by nature of the process. There has been very little success to date in removing pesticide residues from source water.

By using electrolysed solutions NADES and NADES-Base in various concentrations in CIP systems and in water as it enters a factory prior to use we can overcome many of the problems mentioned above. This is a surprising step forward, because the amount of water and chemicals that could be saved is not rational to evaluate. Taking all available methods of cleaning and chemicals suitable for this purposes no one will expect such a reduction of material.

The solutions provide the following benefits.

The amount of fresh water required to rinse away chemical residues from pipes and vessels after sanitation is reduced as it is a more effective biocide than existing available chemical and one which reverts to it's component parts of salt and water once used and which is easily rinsed from surface thereby leaving no measurable residues which could contaminate a finished product. Therefore the cleaned pipes and vessels could be used directly after cleaning without making them "suit- able for food". This in trial has reduced the water required for this purpose from 180,000 litres per day down to 12,000 litres per day and reduced water flow rates and the time taken to rinse the system from 2 hours down to 45 minutes.

The integration of these solutions into automated pre-programmed CIP systems make them simple and safe to use. Usually requiring no more than a production unit two storage tanks and a pump system which could be the one currently used - A -

within the established CIP system. The percentage inclusion rates for the NADES which is primarily used for sanitation can be between 0.5% to 30 % and the NADES-Base will be used in conjunction with existing chemicals to reduce their use or on its own at dilution rates of between 25% - 100%. There is no require- ment for separate handling systems for hazardous chemicals and training for employees.

The use of CO₂ to pressurise systems in conjunction with NADES will lead to elevated ORP which greatly enhance biocidal efficacy.

The reduction in the number of steps required to achieve total sanitation will be reduced from 5 to as few as 3 and the time of these steps will be in turn reduced. This makes the production window larger.

The temperature of the water used in all systems used for maintaining hygiene in the factory or for cleaning re-usable packaging such as bottles or kegs can be reduced from 82-70⁰C down to 50-40°C. Thereby reducing the cost of the process and extending the life of the re-usable packaging by reducing chemical and heat damage. The solutions, NADES and NADES-Base can be integrated into existing systems used for washing.

The use of the solutions will greatly reduce the amount of pressure on effluent systems which have to remove chemical contamination which is a result of the products used in the cleaning regimes. It has been shown that at the low inclusion levels of NADES up to a maximum of 10 ppm mixed oxidant, which are typical in effluent flows generated from factories using a NADES system, that there is a beneficial effect on bacterial cultures used in batch system biological effluent plants.

The inclusion of NADES and or NADES-Base in a one or two step system in all incoming water by using a dosing pump will provide bacteria free water which will be free of pesticides. NADES/NADES-Base in combination can also disturb certain residues of pesticides. Some of the pesticides / herbicides that can be controlled in this fashion are as follows: Endoxacarb, Cypomethrin, Malathion, Or- ganophosphates, Organochlorides und Canazole.

These are some of the commonly used agro-chemicals that are washed down into water courses worldwide and which can be neutralised in water by the inclusion of NADES at rates between 0.5% to 50%.

Claims

Claims

1. Use of an anolyte solution and/or catolyte solution of electrochemically activated salt solutions in a cleaning-in-process system for bottling beverages.

2. The use according to claim 1 wherein the salt is sodium chloride.