Redução do consumo de água de enxágue utilizada em sistemas de lipeza clean-in-place

Abstract

Food hygiene is essential to ensure the safety and adequacy of food at all stages of the production chain. It consists of steps such as pre-washing, cleaning, disinfection, and rinsing, influenced by factors like chemical, mechanical, and thermal agents, as well as time, according to the Sinner’s Circle model. Common methods include manual cleaning, foam application, dry cleaning, and automated systems such as Clean-In-Place (CIP) and Clean-Open-Place (COP). The CIP method stands out for its efficiency, reducing time and operational costs in industries such as food, pharmaceuticals, and dairy. Its typical stages include pre-washing, application of detergents (alkaline and acidic), and rinsing. Automation with sensors and controls enhances the process's effectiveness, reliability, and scalability, allowing the monitoring of variables such as flow rate, pH, and temperature. Despite its advantages, CIP requires operational downtimes, which may lead to neglect in some applications. Therefore, process optimization is essential to balance efficiency and costs while ensuring hygiene standards, product quality, and food safety. In this regard, an optimization analysis is proposed based on an industrial scenario studied in the literature. In this context, pipelines were sized for a given working flow rate, and subsequently, the minimum required flow rate was analyzed to achieve lower costs with inputs and water without compromising process effectiveness, resulting in a process flow rate of 59 m³/h.