Sistema de limpeza CIP (clean in place) aplicado à planta-piloto de processamento de aloe vera

Abstract

In recent years, Aloe vera gel, popularly known in Brazil as aloe, has been attracting interest from the most diverse industrial sectors. Its application is so wide that new products are appearing on the market, ranging from the pharmaceutical to the food and beverage industries. Therefore, there is a need for studies related not only to the properties of the plant extract, but also to large-scale processing as well as the cleaning of equipment involved in this process. The main points related to the properties of Aloe vera and its gel, its industrial application and all the processing steps, from harvesting to the final filling of the gel, are presented. The procedure that the CIP cleaning system must comply with is also discussed, as well as the equipment and conditions required for its correct operation. The development of this work was based on a pilot installation intended for the processing of aloe vera gel, which is being assembled at the Guarulhos campus of the Instituto Federal de São Paulo. The proposed CIP cleaning procedure for the plant has 5 steps: pre-rinse, alkaline cleaning with sodium hydroxide, intermediate rinse, sanitization with sodium hypochlorite and final rinse. The estimated time for a complete pilot plant cleaning cycle is approximately 43 minutes. The CIP plant is designed to use a heat exchanger and four storage tanks, namely: clean water tank, reclaimed water tank, basic detergent tank and disinfectant tank. The automation of the cleaning system considers the use of level, flow, temperature, and conductivity controllers, in addition to the respective valves. The controllers will be configured in the database of a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller).