in a shift on a Saturday or Sunday during the peak season if this is necessary , they ’ re understandably not desperate to do this work that ’ s strenuous and unproductive ,” Maas emphasizes .
The Dynamic Biofilm Protection system , complete with two control units and twelve ultrasonic transducers , has been in operation at BAD MEINBERGER for about 18 months now . “ It was primarily our trust in KHS that prompted us to install the system ,” Mühlenweg remembers . “ And of course we were also convinced by the fact that the process has been in use for many years without any problems , even in huge shipping containers .” The reason for this is easy to comprehend : the liquid is oscillated , thus keeping the particulate matter contained in it in motion , not by a constant permanent frequency but by intermittent pulses .
Autonomous and maintenance free
In the end , the engineers ’ curiosity won them over , resulted in the mineral water bottling plant being one of the first beverage operations to use this technology . “ This was one of the best decisions we ’ ve ever made ,” says Mühlenweg happily . “ We often filled an entire wheelbarrow with deposits in the past ; now we barely need a 20-liter bucket . And this year we haven ’ t yet had to carry out a single acid treatment . The system is completely autonomous and practically maintenance free .” Maas smiles that “ the new system is making itself noticeable here by being unnoticeable . Or , to put it another way , the best service is the service you don ’ t need .”
BAD MEINBERGER is also being supported in its striving for greater sustainability by the use of the new procedure . “ On the one hand , the Dynamic Biofilm Protection system considerably lengthens the time between cleaning operations and reduces downtime , thus enabling a significant increase in production ,” stresses Kathrin Gareis , service product manager at KHS . “ On the other , the consumption of water , heat , electricity and chemicals such as citric acid used to descale components is greatly decreased by this system . Besides the cuts in operating costs this results in , this also helps to save energy and resources – an issue which is so important to our customers .”
When it comes to sustainability and resource efficiency , we ’ re one of the pioneers .
Potential resource savings
In this context , Mühlenweg and Maas monitor the quality of the caustic in their bottle washer extremely carefully . They use about 40 cubic meters of it which – should it have to be discarded – first needs to be brought up to the right temperature and then dosed with new chemicals each time . There ’ s thus constant filtration during filling and only the exact same amount of fresh water or caustic is added as is lost through the removed labels , for instance . At the same time , owing to specific process parameters that have a high risk of forming deposits , the caustic temperature at BAD MEINBERGER
has been lowered through close cooperation with the laboratory . “ Most beverage producers use higher temperatures but that ’ s not our intention ,” Mühlenweg states . “ In view of the high costs for heat generation , at the moment our sector is undergoing a rethink . Lots of colleagues could follow our lead here .”
Gareis totally agrees and not only sees deposits being greatly reduced and intervals between cleaning cycles becoming longer for both current and future KHS customers thanks to Dynamic Biofilm Protection but also potential for saving on energy and resources .
DYNAMIC BIOFILM PROTECTION AT A GLANCE
Ultrasonic transducers to reduce deposit formation on heat exchangers , process water baths , pipes and sprays ; option for new machines or as a retrofit for existing KHS systems .
• Longer cleaning intervals
• Less downtime
• Increased production
• Fewer personnel hours needed for cleaning
• Water , electricity , heat and chemical savings
• Lower operating costs
For more information go to : www . khs . com / en / media
Issue 67 PECM 85