BETTING ON THE RIGHT HORSE

"Betting on the right horse" is a way of expressing "having trusted someone, and that someone having followed through".

And you can bet your bottom Dollar that ECA Technology and INNOWATECH will change the way you look at Biofilms, Germs, Water and Product Quality 

The following case study illustrates what INNOWATECH' s ECA technology is doing for its users,  in this case - an age-old German mineral water producer. 

Cold sterilization with Anolyte

Bad Imnauer Mineralquellen GmbH is a producer of mineral water that has always been open to technological innovations. In 2008, for instance, this company was faced with investment decisions in its bottling area. The challenge was to replace the disinfectants, as well as the hot water cycle, that were then part of the CIP process of the bottle washer.

Eventually, management settled on an INNOWATECH Aquadron? water treatment system as a solution. This system relies on Anolyte as a cold sterilization agent. The Aquadron system selected by Bad Imnauer Mineralquellen is manufactured in Germany/Empfingen by Innowatech GmbH. This system is capable of producing lNNOWATECH Anolyte?, a highly effective disinfectant, and that right beside the site of application.

Bad Imnauer Mineralquellen is located in Haigerloch-Bad lmnau, a town in the German province of Baden-Wurttemberg, sandwiched between Germany’s Black Forest and the Swabian Alb regions.

The company can look back on a long history, which began around 1700, when small mineral wells bubbling out of the ground were discovered in the Eyach valley. In 1733, a large well was discovered, which was soon named the “prince well" after the local Prince Joseph Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Subsequently, the company evolved under different owners and names. In 2010, the name Imnauer  Fürstenquelle GmbH changed to Imnauer Mineralquellen GmbH. Since then, it has been under the management of Jochen und Wolfgang Ketlerer. Today, the plant employs a staff of 65 and produces about 75 million ?llings per year.

As early as 1733, water from the Imnauer well had achieved such a good reputation that its precious liquid was pumped by hand into jars and hauled by horse—drawn drays to many local customers. As more and more people discovered the great taste of the Imnauer water, the company widened its distribution network and even shipped its water to as far away as Augsburg, Zurich and Stuttgart.

Since then, market conditions have changed dramatically. Today, the company has a water portfolio of glass bottles ranging in size from 0.25 to 0.75 liters, as well as a special “gastro-bottle" of 0.76 liters. A PET-line was added in 2003 for bottles from 0.5 to 1.5 liters.

In 2008, it became clear that the CIP process for the bottle washer needed to be upgraded, primarily to replace the disinfectant then in use, as well as the hot-water cycle. lmnauer Mineralquellen GmbH made a calculated choice and purchased the Aquadron system from INNOWATECH GmbH to benefit from its cold-sterilization process.

lnnowatech GmbH was chosen for the following reasons:

• Anolyte is a highly effective disinfecting agent capable of destroying all germs. This is why the technology is being used in many applications in the beverage industry.
• In addition, this process meets all legal requirements for use in the treatment of drinking water.
• Anolytes are effective in a wide range of temperatures, from 1°C to 75°C.
• lt is quick and easy to verify the effectiveness of anolyte treatments in simple lab tests.
• Anolyte is pH-neutral. Therefore, it is compatible with many materials. Specifically, it is non-corrosive and protects elastomers.

Step one: The changeover from one disinfection medium to another

After installing the Aquadron system in 2008, the first step was to replace the peracetic acid as the disinfectant in the warm water zones of the bottle washer with Anolyte. In addition, all water in the cold water zone was treated with Anolyte in accordance with regulations of the (German) Drinking Water Ordinance. The hot water zone was also charged with Anolyte, in order to achieve a high level of disinfection.

Step two: CIP disinfection of filler and mixer equipment

The results of using the Anolyte in both the hot and cold water zones of the bottle washer were convincing. The absence of germs was verified by the Orange Serum Agar (OS Agar) and Standard I agar (ST I agar) tests. Due to the favorable results and subsequent considerations to use the Anolyte in other applications, a decision was made to convert the CIP disinfection of the filler and mixer to Anolyte treatments.

The hot water cycle with water at a temperature of more than 85°C - supplied from a CIP tank of about 12 m3 — was replaced with a disinfection cycle at room temperature. In this new process, anolyte is added at a concentration of 4 ppm as a disinfectant to fresh water. As expected, in a microbiological test for germs, no germs were detected.

The new process eliminated atmospheric humidity in areas where steamy conditions are undesirable, and also reduced the risk of staff being scalded. Finally, it eliminated the substantial primary energy costs associated with the heating of 12 m3 of water.

Anolyte can be stacked as a disinfectant and, due to its conductivity, correct dosage measurement is easy to achieve.

 Changing requirements

The demands on bottling lines have increased dramatically in recent years. When the glass line was put into operation in 1994, there were only a few drink brands to fill — mineral water, lemonade and orange soda.

Nowadays, the same line has to handle many more drinks. At lmnauer Mineralquellen more than 30 varieties of water, spritzers, lemonades and other drinks must now be accommodated.

Obviously, back then, the ?ller equipment could not have been planned for today’s requirements. This especially brings the mixer into focus. Few mixers are designed with cleaning, sterilizing, or disinfection in mind. The conventional cluster of different vessels, piping and connectors makes it next to impossible to ensure proper cleaning, disinfecting or sterilizing. Due to old equipment, the construction of the filler, mixer and weak points within the system and as an additional firewall, the entire installation is subjected to a hot water cleaning regimen once every three weeks.

In spite of all these measures taken, the capacity of the lmnauer plant slowly, but surely started reaching its limits. A remarkable thing was that the concepts and ideas of the staff that ran the plant never subsided, which is saluted in every measure and responsible for the successfull implementation of the technology.

Anolyte as a means of disinfecting was then further deemed to enable an even higher capacity expansion. You would think Nuts! However, this expansion actually happened in the spring of 2014 and led to the next steps in the implementation of Anolyte disinfection.

Step 3: Integration of the CIP system with the syrup sector.

Step 4: Anolyte use in the PET line CIP system.

Step 5: Filler disinfection in the glass and in the PET bottling line.

Years of practical applications with the INNOWATECH Aquadron? system and the disinfectant lNNOWATECH Anolyte? have demonstrated the effectiveness of the procedure.

In addition, there are several other benefits:

• Reliable elimination of all “drink-infecting” microbes.
• Fast response times.
• No recontamination from water residues in containers.
• No sensory, physical and chemical alterations of the product.
• No damage to stainless steel and elastomers.
• No need to use and store hazardous materials.
• Due to its pH-neutrality, no waste water issues occur. Instead, an improvement in COD and AOX values are recorded.
• Low maintenance costs.
• A reduction of water consumption from reduced flushing during cleaning and disinfecting.
• Safety in use and handling.
• No warehousing and logistics costs.
• Easy integration with existing and legacy systems (short installation time).
• The product complies with all national and international drinking water regulations as well as biocidal products regulations.

Conclusion

The use of INNOWATECH Anolyte? is most beneficial in beverage settings for several reasons. The most important benefits of the changeover to disinfection with anolyte for Bad lmnauer Bad Mineralquellen are the abilities to cold-sterilize the filler and mixer.

Also, the savings achieved by implementing the technology resulted in a very short amortization period of the investment in INNOWATECH Anolyte?.

Thank you for your attention

Kind regards

Trevor Sievert

Editor: Trevor Sievert / INNOWATECH GmbH

Author: Wolfgang Mehnert / INNOWATECH GmbH