New Solutions For SIP Design For Larger Vessels

There are 2 problems associated with conventionally designed large vessel SIP drains.

1. Inefficient use of clean steam and slow heat-up
2. High initial capital cost

This is a conventional piping design for validated vessel drains.

Heat-up:

• During SIP heat-up, air and condensate (and clean steam) are diverted through the harvest line 3-way bypass valve directly to drain

Temperature Maintenance:

• When the SIP temperature sensor reaches ~203°F (~95°C), the bypass valve opens to direct the lighter condensate load through the steam traps. Actual temperature depends upon DCS/PLC configuration.

Note: during sanitization (pre SIP), Rinse and CIP, liquids are usually diverted through the primary harvest line 3-way bypass valve directly to drain. Though some end users divert through a secondary harvest line 3-way bypass valve further downstream.

Several years ago, Steriflow looked at the problems associated with the conventional piping design, and started work on a design to alleviate those problems. We developed a trap with enough capacity to handle most rinse/CIP/rinse sanitization flows and the air and condensate flows associated with SIP.

We did it by developing the world’s first dual element trap. It works in the following manner:

Two bellows assemblies work together to handle sanitization liquids (rinse/CIP/rinse), and the heat-up and maintenance loads of larger vessels.

• During SIP, both bellows are open during heat-up providing excellent capacity for eliminating air and condensate.
• The higher capacity bellows is designed to close when vessel temperature is between 203°F and 212°F (90°C and 100°C). This allows the lower subcooling MK93 bellows to handle the smaller loads generated during temperature maintenance.
• No clean steam is lost during operation of the trap. Both bellows will close when the bellows sense saturated steam temperatures.

Benefits:

• CAPex: None. Cost approximately $300 more than the traditional piping arrangement
• Heat-up time improvement: NO lost clean steam – all enthalpy from entering steam heats the vessel, none lost to drain
• OPex: Less clean steam used than with traditional piping arrangement