Cleaning in CIP processes

The sanitary aspects of producing food and beverage products are of extreme importance.
Plants must meet high hygienic standards to avoid a product's degradation and contamination
during operation, and plant cleaning must be carried out quickly and thoroughly. The cleaning
requirements are best met with Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) systems.

CIP systems offer fast, efficient and reliable cleaning of all types of process plant. It's a method
which cleans complete items of plant equipment or pipelines circuits without dismantling the
equipment.

Cleaning in Place (CIP) refers to the use of a mix of chemicals, heat and water used to clean
machinery, vessels or pipe work without dismantling the plant. CIP has been around for about
50 years and is used in hygiene critical industries, including food, beverage, biotechnology and
pharmaceutical, to clean primary (and some ancillary) plant lines. The process can be one
shot, where everything goes to drain, or recovery, which recycles most of the liquid. Overall,
CIP can be a very efficient way of cleaning.

CIP should be used in any industry and plant where hygiene is critical; the process is usually an
integral part of established automation systems. However expanded health and safety / food
security compliance is set to make CIP more stringent - which good given a shiny surface on
the outside of plant is no guarantee of cleanliness on the inside!

CIP is principally concerned with soil removal; however soil refers to anything that should not
be present in a clean vessel and is therefore 'soiling' the vessel. Soil can cause tainting and can
often be smelled. It may be visible (scale, foreign bodies,) or invisible in the form of bacteria,
such as E Coli, or yeast spores. A CIP process of at least 15 minutes of a suitable chemical
(strength dependent on chemical supplier and product) is required to remove vessel soiling.
The CIP process should optimally run between 50° Celsius and 75° Celsius, as there is no
cleaning advantage to heating beyond 75° Celcius.
CIP systems are divided in differents operations :

1- Flushing in order to eliminate residues

2- Alkaline cleaning operation : alkaline detergents dissolve fat and proteins, and cleaning
where harder deposits have occured

3- Intermediate water rinse

4- Acidic cleaning operation : for neutralising the caustic remaining on the surfaces of the
plant. The acidic detergents remove mineral deposits in the equipment (especially warm areas
like in the pasteurizer)

5- Final water rinse : Cold water purges out the residual acid solution

CIP is a closed system where recirculating cleaning solution is applied (often with nozzles) that
cleans, rinses and sanitises equipment. The CIP system is usually automatically controlled and
the cleaning sequences are given the optimum timing for efficient cleaning of all parts of the
plants.

Differents types of Cleaning-in-Place systems exist :

Single pass system :

New cleaning solution is introduced to the

plant to be cleaned and then disposed to
drain. In most cases, a single pass system
would start with a pre-rinse to remove as
much soiling as possible. The detergent clean
and a final rinse would follow this.
Recirculation system :

The cleaning solution is made up in an

external tank then introduced to the plant to
be cleaned. It is recirculated and topped up as
required until the cleaning cycle is complete.
When the detergent clean is complete it is
then normal to carry out a final rinse.

Recirculation systems use less water and

cleaning detergents but require greater
capital outlay and in some circumstances may
be unsuitable due to cross contamination
from one process to another.

As with every system, CIP systems show some advantages and disadvantages :

Advantages :
- Reduced labor (minimise cleaning time)
- Improved hygiene (automated systems clean
and sanitise more effectively and consistently
than manual cleaning)
- Conservation of cleaning solution
- Improved equipment and storage utilisation ensure that these elements are applied
Disadvantages :
- Installation : the optimisation of cleaning
programmes should be carried out by qualified
people
- Maintenance : pressure or flow rate of
cleaning chemicals through the system should
be measured; must be reviewed routinely to

- Improved safety consistently and continuously

- Maintain high plant production availability - Difficult to access areas can be cleaned (adv)

- Optimisation of the use of detergent and

water
Cleaning agents

Commonly used chemicals for soil removal include Caustic Soda, Phosphoric and Nitric acids,
Sodium Hypochlorite (Hypo) and Peracetic Acid (PAA). Caustic Soda is an alkali typically used at
0.5% - 2% volume. It reacts with fats in the soil to soften them for removal. One downside is
that Caustic Soda is not effective for removing scaling. In addition, sequestriants are often
added to keep soiling in solution.
Phosphoric and Nitric Acids are used in detergent formulations for scale removal, often at lower
temperatures than Caustic. These acids must be used with care as they can attack valve and
pump seals. They are often used in dairies for one week in every six weeks, to remove milk
scale. Phosphoric and Nitric acids are frequently used after commissioning, to remove
installation debris.

Sodium Hypochlorite, usually called Hypo, is very inexpensive which offers a strong advantage.
However, it is primarily used for disinfecting because its ability for soil removal is poor. The
active ingredient of Hypo is chlorine (bleach). When concentrated, this can corrode stainless
steel in and will attack seals and personnel. It will also taint the process if not carefully rinsed
out, and is dangerous if mixed with acid as it will form poisonous chlorine gas.

PAA is an equilibrium mixture of acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide. It is a powerful oxidising
agent with an oxidation capacity higher than sodium hypochlorite and chlorine dioxide, and is
comparable to the oxidative capacity of ozone. PAA at 75 mg/L is reported to successfully kill
100% of a 10(7) cell/ml yeast or bacterial population in 30- seconds.

CIP line & vessel cleaning

When cleaning lines in process equipment using CIP, the correct fluid velocity must be achieved
to obtain good cleaning. Laminar flow below velocity 1.5 m/sec does not give good cleaning
characteristics; quite turbulent flow is instead required, at velocities between 1.5-2.1 m/sec.
There is no gain at velocities above 2.1 m/sec.

In cleaning vessels, two main methods are generally employed. The first uses high pressure
cleaning to remove soil by force, with the vessel surface being sprayed in a series of passes. The
second method employs low pressure cleaning heads that rely purely on chemical action to
remove the soiling.

CIP return

The majority of problems with CIP can be attributed to poor CIP return. This causes excessive
CIP times, excessive use of detergent and heat, and high effluent discharge.

To overcome these problems, the system for Return must quickly and efficiently return the
cleaning solutions back to the CIP set. Critical in this is the choice of scavenge pump. Poor
 scavenge causes back-up of cleaning solution as well as poor cleaning of the lower part of the
vessel. In contrast, effective scavenge allows fresh cleaning solutions to contact all vessel walls
and carry away soil effectively.

CIP optimisation

Most CIP sequences are never altered following installation; they are usually set to 'defaults'
which are set during commissioning. However CIP operators can optimise their systems by
monitoring a number of key parameters. These are:

 What temperature and concentration (conductivity) are the Caustic tanks set to?
These are often set too high with no added benefit.

 Consider the pre-rinse - does it run clear and then keep going?
Is the pre-rinse eliminating sufficient residue? Could it operate more efficiently?

 Caustic Fill - how high are the return conductivity and temperature transmitters set?
Keeping parameters as near as possible to the limiting effective temperature and pressure;
higher parameters derive no benefit but cost in resource inputs.

 Intermediate rinse - is it removing caustic solution and temperature prior to

sterilisation?
Optimise volume, velocity and time of rinse.

 Sterilisation - what strength is the sterilising agent and how long is the contact time?
Avoid wasted resources by ensuring strength and contact are idealised.

 Avoid wasted resources by ensuring strength and contact are idealised.

 Finally all changes resulting from the CIP monitoring process should be documented and
validated, to meet statutory regulations and/or specific client requirements.
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