This same principle is now being applied to the HRS Universal Product Recovery System. Rather than just measuring temperature, any suitable physical or chemical property can be continually monitored, such as Brix, pH, viscosity or density. The choice of which parameter is used depends on the nature of the product and the sensors that are available.
Recovery in practice
A line producing fruit juice may have a typical sugar level of 12 Brix. The concentration of the juice leaving the pasteuriser is monitored using a Brix meter, and any juice which falls below this level is diverted to waste. The line employs water flushing as part of its CIP systems. Traditionally, because it could not accurately be determined where the mixing zone between residual product and flushing water began, anything passing through the pasteuriser during this cleaning phase would have been discarded, including any perfectly good product left in the pasteuriser at the end of the production cycle. However, by monitoring the product concentration from the beginning of the flushing cycle, it is possible to send juice with a Brix level of 12 or higher to the next phase of production( such as packing), and only discard material which falls below this set parameter.
Another example involves a manufacturer of BBQ sauce. Assuming the company makes a profit of 40 pence per litre of sauce, even if 200 litres are lost per production line during cleaning cycles each day, that equates to a loss of £ 80 a day or £ 24,000 a year( assuming 300 days production).
If the company has four lines then it is losing almost £ 100,000 worth of profit, not to mention the creation of around 68 tonnes of waste each year.
Benefitting pocket and planet
As well as increasing the amount of product which can be sold, reducing the amount of waste generated decreases disposal costs such as storage, transport and treatment. Alongside these financial benefits, the environmental footprint of the production line will also be improved, with more end product being obtained for the same effort – effectively lowering CO2e emissions per unit produced. Furthermore, cutting down the amount of product mixed in with the flushing or cleaning water means that the resulting waste stream is cleaner and will require less processing, further reducing financial and environmental costs.
As all HRS pasteurisers and sterilisers already include a three-way valve to allow for the diversion of out-of-specification product, the only real additional expense are the monitoring and control systems. With potential cost savings running into hundreds of thousands of pounds, such systems rapidly repay any additional capital expense.
With manufacturers’ focus on Industry 4.0 now prompting them to reassess the efficiency of all their processes, it’ s easy to see why Product Recovery Systems are increasingly being specified alongside both new and existing sterilisation and pasteurisation systems.
About HRS Heat Exchangers
Headquartered in the UK, HRS Heat Exchangers Ltd operates at the forefront of thermal technology, offering innovative and effective heat transfer solutions worldwide, across a diverse range of industries.
With over 35 years’ experience, we specialise in the design and manufacture of an extensive range of tubular, corrugated and scraped surface heat exchangers.
All our products comply with the European PED.
HRS has a network of offices throughout the world: Spain, USA, Malaysia, Australia and India; with manufacturing plants in the UK, India and Spain.
www. hrs-heatexchangers. com
Issue 33 PECM 23