Clean-in-Place (CIP) Science
Imagine if you had the ability to measure the walls of your process transfer lines and
storage tanks. You could measure the rate of fouling, or the chemistry of the fouling,
or the effect of your cleaning process. You would convert your CIP system from a
series of educated guesses to a directly measured science.
Fouling cells and FTIR enable you to take the next step and move your CIP process from guess
to science. Fouling cells and FTIR provide the tools to take our cleaning process to the next
level.
Which cleaning chemical might be the best for your particular product? Screen a number of
chemicals and see what works best. The figure below shows a screening trial against a chemical
fouling layer. The higher the bar, the more effective the cleaning agent. Here, citric acid
was the wrong choice, whereas high pH caustic worked more effectively than trisodium
phosphate (TSP) or sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl).
What is the effect of cleaning agent temperature on your specific product fouling?
In the case below, the data suggests that hotter is better.
Can you save some money on your cleaning chemicals? In the process below, 1%
caustic is nearly as effective as 5%. Use data to drive your decision.
Will adding a surfactant to your bleach cleaning solution improve your process cleaning?
The figure below shows that in this case, bleach was not as effective as a combination of
bleach and a surfactant on this plant’s chemical fouling layer.
Fouling cells and FTIR are a powerful combination for taking your CIP process to the
next level with the science of cleaning.
