With ultrasound, deposits on bottle washing
machines, for instance, can be clearly reduced, cleaning intervals
lengthened and downtimes shortened – not to mention the savings in
energy and resources. German mineral water bottling plant Staatlich
Bad Meinberger has put this simple principle into practice – and is
delighted with the results.
“When it comes to sustainability and resource efficiency, we’re one of the
pioneers,” explains Robert Mühlenweg, technical and logistics plant manager
for the beverage producer. “Our colleagues in the sector thus like to come
and see how we’re cutting down on our consumption of water and energy.”
As an SME bottler it’s important to move with the times, he believes. And
that’s not all: “As we frequently push ourselves to the limit, we tend to be
noticed in our branch of industry.” When he and his colleague Jannis Maas,
the plant manager responsible for production and supply at BAD
MEINBERGER, talk about cutting down on their carbon emissions, they
mean genuine climate neutrality – and not mere compensation through the
purchase of certificates. Their attitude and resulting success has earned
them great trust and plenty of freedom among the managing directors. “In
order to further improve our various consumption values, we often try new
things out and sometimes even dare to experiment.”
They began exploring one such new avenue with KHS in March 2022 –
incidentally not for the first time, for the mineral water company enjoys a long
technological partnership with the Dortmund systems supplier. The bottler
has repeatedly acted as an extended workbench and pilot customer to the
nearby machine and systems manufacturer, enabling new and further
developments to be tested under real conditions and fine adjustments made
where necessary.
From shipbuilding to the beverage industry
This time the technology isn’t new, however, but a procedure that’s been in
use for many years in a completely different sector, namely shipbuilding, and
is now being applied to the beverage industry. KHS HASYTEC Dynamic
Biofilm Protection is a simple plug-and-produce product where ultrasonic
transducers cause the liquid in certain components of the machine to gently
vibrate. The system is currently available for both bottle washing machines
and pasteurizers – whether for new machines or as a conversion for existing
systems.
At BAD MEINBERGER Dynamic Biofilm Protection reduces deposits of
biofilm, limestone and fibrous material from paper labels in the spray pipes
on the KHS Innoclean EE bottle washer, for example. In the past, without this
system machinery often became clogged with deposits that required a
considerable amount of effort to remove. “The combination of paper and
limestone in particular presented us with a real challenge,” says Maas. “Our
colleagues often had to get to work with a chisel!”
Ultrasound not muscle power
It’s not just the time-consuming physical labor that’s hard work when it comes
to cleaning machine parts. In the peak season especially, with the plant
running at full capacity, finding an appropriate slot for cleaning often proves
something of a headache. “Before we installed the ultrasonic converter, the
level of calcification on the machine had to be checked at the latest every two
months and the machine then descaled and partly dismantled in order to
remove the deposits formed. This took up an entire day that had to be
blocked off in the production schedule or moved to a weekend. And even if
the team is basically motivated to put 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.”
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
