Maximizing efficiency: Automation’s role in saving water during brewery CIP processes

Malt, hops, and yeast generally take center stage when producing beer, but water also plays a major role. After all, beer is generally about 90 percent water. The average efficiently-operated brew house uses seven gallons of water to produce one gallon of beer. In addition, massive amounts of water are required throughout brewing production, in particular during clean-in-place (CIP) — an essential process of cleaning brewing equipment without disassembly or having to transport it to a different location. CIP is performed throughout all equipment in a brewery.

CIP is critical to brewers for many reasons:

• Sanitation and Contamination Prevention. Unwanted microorganisms can spoil beer and affect the flavor. CIP ensures that equipment like fermentation vessels, transfer hoses, and pumps are thoroughly cleaned.
• Quality Control. Consistent, high-quality beer depends on maintaining clean equipment. CIP removes previous batch residue and rinses out all the cleaning chemicals.
• Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness. Automating CIP enhances productivity and reduces water and chemical usage.
• Safety. Manual cleaning procedures are ineffective and can be unsafe. Automated systems minimize the operators’ exposure to chemicals and boiling hot water.
• Sustainability. Minimizing the use of water and chemicals during the CIP process contributes to overall sustainability and best brewing practices.
• Regulatory Compliance. Breweries must comply with strict CIP procedures to meet health and safety regulations and to ensure that their products meet industry standards for hygiene.

How automation saves time and reduces waste during CIP

In the brewing industry, optimizing water usage during the CIP process is crucial for sustainability and efficiency. By incorporating conductivity and water quality sensors, brewers can precisely measure the chemical concentration in cleaning water, gaining transparency into chemical concentration during CIP, and also when the final rinse cycle is complete, reducing overall chemical consumption and clean water waste.

Modern technology approaches that enhance CIP processes are accessible to breweries of all sizes and also provide a cost-effective solution compared to fully automated systems that may be beyond the budget of most operations. Extremely large breweries typically have expensive, fully-automated cleaning systems that are permanently piped to each vessel, or packaged within a mobile CIP skid. These systems automatically dose the right amount of chemicals, control the wash and rinse pumping phases, and leverage data from conductivity and temperatures sensors to stop the process when the final rinse water is clean.

However, most smaller breweries don’t have the budget for the expensive alternatives and therefore, they must rely on a semi-manual system that includes a clean water source, a transfer pump (typically mounted on a mobile cart) a large drum with diluted chemicals, and an operator to oversee the entire operation.

Depending on what is being cleaned, and the brewery’s standard operating procedures, different types and concentrations of chemicals are recirculated through the equipment at a desired temperature for a minimum amount of time. Once complete, the wastewater is typically dumped to drain, and fresh clean water is pumped into the equipment to rinse out any of the remaining chemical residue from the tank. The goal is to clean the equipment thoroughly in the shortest amount of time using the least amount of chemicals and clean water, without leaving any chemical residue behind before resuming normal production.

These manual processes are ineffective, unsafe, wasteful, and they require significant time and manpower to complete. Sensor technology provides an affordable option to automate the process — helping brewers save time, money, manpower, and improve the consistency and quality of the beer.

Lord Hobo Brewing Co. in Woburn, Massachusetts, added a conductivity sensor to their CIP process and were immediately able to monitor the process automatically with real-time data. The sensor blinks red when there are chemicals in the line and then it blinks green when the water is clean. Furthermore, historical data can be reviewed to see the conductivity and temperature of the various CIP cycles and gain an overall understanding on how long it took to complete the entire process. Simplifying the process allowed the operator to multitask during the CIP process and gain confidence that the equipment has been thoroughly sanitized before adding valuable product into the tanks.

“Using automation has allowed us to greatly reduce the amount of water used for rinsing tanks post CIP,” says Lord Hobo Brewmaster Keith Gabbett. “The sensor gives you a clear indication that you’ve completely rinsed your tank of caustic or acid and, since you can see it from across the cellar, you’re able to react quickly to shut off the water. Best of all, the ease of installation and use meant that we were able to put it into production immediately, reducing our water usage from day one.”

Automation with conductivity sensors can improve CIP efficiency in a brewery, reducing chemical and water waste, in several significant ways:

1. Using sensors to monitor the concentration of chemicals used for CIP processes significantly enhances efficiency. By measuring the conductivity of a caustic cleaning solution, brewers can determine the amount of electricity conducted through the medium. For instance, bleach exhibits high conductivity, while pure water has almost zero conductivity. Acid-base cleaners fall somewhere in between. Profiling the cleaning activity through conductivity metrics reveals the chemical consistency, allowing brewers to gauge the necessary amount of chemicals, thereby reducing waste and ensuring batch consistency post-cleaning. Automation provides continuous traceability, eliminating the inefficiencies associated with manual, discrete point monitoring.
2. Using sensor technology to determine when tanks are fully rinsed and ready for beer. Measuring conductivity provides transparency into the CIP process by detecting when trace chemicals are no longer present in the outgoing rinse water. Most breweries unintentionally over-rinse their tanks, wasting a significant amount of water. By stopping the final rinse when conductivity has reached a minimum, brewers can save time, money, and increase their environmental sustainability.
3. Sensors provide traceability for the amounts of chemicals and water used. Sensor automation tracks usage history and, through trial and error, of different cleaning methods. This helps to determine the optimal CIP process. Data is continuously monitored, recorded, and analyzed to ensure consistency.
4. Sensor technology brings simplicity and accuracy to the CIP process. Smaller breweries, with fewer workers have limited opportunities to visually monitor equipment. Automation enables multitasking by using blinking lights to indicate the stages of the CIP process, making it visible from multiple locations within the brewery. Automatic shutoffs prevent the overuse of chemicals and water.
5. Sensor technology offers flexibility. Some breweries perform CIP once a week, while others do it hourly or between every batch. Certain tanks require heavy chemicals, while others need only a hot water flush. Sensors provide adaptable solutions to monitor various standard operating procedures across brewery equipment. They offer traceable data and continuous improvement opportunity throughout the entire brewery. This data can be used to build a history of cleaning cycles for each asset..
6. Sensors minimize water usage in breweries, where water consumption is substantial. Brewers must pay for both fresh water and the disposal of wastewater. The final rinse, the last stage of the CIP process, typically wastes the most water. By controlling the amount used and stopping it when complete, sensors reduce water waste. Saving water during CIP improves brewery efficiency, addresses environmental concerns, and impacts downstream processing, where the water is cleaned and reused by the community.

When using sensor technology to automate the CIP process in beer brewing, brewers benefit from real-time, traceable, repeatable information rather than estimates and guesses. Taking advantage of affordable sensors that track that data not only creates monetary savings, but breweries can also increase their sustainability and significantly reduce their water consumption.

Aaron Ganick is a serial technology entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Preddio Technologies, the parent company of BrewOps.  Aaron holds a degree in electrical engineering from Boston University and has authored dozens of granted patents in the fields of optical networking, telecommunications, and automation systems. He can be reached at [email protected]. For more information on BrewOps, the fast and easy-to-install brewery automation platform, visit www.brewops.com.