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Water for the CIP System 49
FIGURE 8 High-capacity, compendial water distribution pumps. Source :Courtesy of Lonza
Biologics, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.A.
HOW WATER IS USED IN CIP SYSTEMS
CIP skids can be designed to fill the circuit and recirculation tank with water in two
ways. One involves asecond tank on the skid that is always kept full of water to
draw from as needed. The other fills the circuit and recirculation tank directly with
water before each phase of the wash. Each design has its pros &cons but both
designs are used frequently.
The CIP skid with atank favors asmaller water system that has process
schedule or flow constraints. With awater tank mounted on the CIP skid, the cycle
does not have to wait for water fromthe distribution system at each filling phase of
the cycle. It merely feeds the CIP supply pump from the skid’s dedicated water
tank. The water tank levels the load on the water system over time and allows the
water-use schedule to be de-coupled from the processing schedule when there is
limited flow rate to work with. The greater the flow constraints the larger the tank
needs to be. Obviously,the addition of any tank to the CIP skid adds to the size and
cost of the skid, so it’s not just as easy as putting alarge tank on aCIP skid to solve
all process schedule problems.
Adedicated water tank on the CIP skid may actually increase or decrease the
amount of water used per cycle depending on how the cycle fills and flushes the
tank. The cycle may call for the vessel to be flushed to drain excessively before
each fill. The tank is usually flushed to drain before it is filled the first time each
day but adesigner may choose to flush each tank on the skid before each cycle
thereby using significantly more water. Onthe other hand, the water tank may be
used to save water if the leftover final rinse water from one cycle is utilized for the
pre-rinse of the following cycle. The final rinse water is usually compendial water
and in most cases would be hot. The designer should set atime limit for how long