Presenter: George Agius, Diversey Inc., Canada. Coauthor(s): Jonathan Crawshaw, Sleeman Brewing Company, Guelph, Canada; Bart Schuurman-Hess, Diversey Inc., Canada.
During clean-in-place (CIP) of brewery equipment, there are several instances where the flow of the cleaning solution is limited. In these situations, there is little mechanical action imparted by the circulating cleaning solution to help remove soils. In some extreme cases, the flow could be so limited that some areas of the surface may not be wetted by the cleaning solution. Increasing the flow by increasing the size of CIP pumps is often not practical, and the remaining combination of chemical action, time, and temperature may not be sufficient to completely remove all soils from the surface. In critical areas, the remaining soils may become a source of microbiological infection. The addition of hydrogen peroxide to the circulating CIP solution has been effectively employed over a number of equipment surfaces to achieve consistent cleaning, including the lauter tun, brew kettle, whirlpool, wort loop, centrifuge, and plate heat exchangers. The improved cleaning of the surfaces has been verified by visual inspection, and the cleaning performance has remained consistent over a period of several months. The decomposition of the hydrogen peroxide in alkaline media into water and oxygen is thought to create micro-bubbling through nucleation, which generates surface mechanical action to help dislodge the soils and also increase the surface contact area of the cleaning solution.
George Agius received his master’s degree in chemistry and was a lecturer in organic and physical chemistry at the Royal University of Malta between 1971 and 1981. In 1982 he joined JohnsonDiversey, where he has held several research positions, leading to the position of technical director (1990) responsible for new product development, engineering systems, and customer technical support. During this time, George directed the development of synthetic lubricants, new sanitizers, bottle scuff maskants, low environmental-impact and acidic CIP cleaners, bottle-washing programs, new pasteurizer treatments, and associated engineering systems. George is currently working on the application of chlorine dioxide and the development of dry conveyor lubricants and other sustainability initiatives for use in the food and beverage industries. George has contributed a number of papers on various topics to brewing, educational and archaeoastronomy journals. He has recently moved from the position of brewing business development in North America to the position of global expert for the food industry, with responsibilities for developing the company’s expertise in the Americas and across the globe. George is married to Joyce and has two daughters, Suzanne and Louise. He enjoys canoeing, photography, astronomy, and reading on the history of science.
VIEW PRESENTATION
