OptimiSing Beverage Production: Pigging Systems for Beverages
In the fast-paced, competitive, and evolving beverage landscape, safety, flexibility, efficiency, and sustainability are of utmost importance.
Beverage manufacturers must keep up with evolving consumer tastes, preferences and behaviours, from sustainable packaging and healthier product formulations to functional and convenient beverage offerings.
These evolving preferences are putting pressure on beverage manufacturers to adapt to an ever-changing consumer and to be agile, flexible, and efficient in their production.
As a result, many beverage companies are turning to technology to help them keep up with the demand. One of the technologies on the rise in the beverage sector is liquid product recovery (“pigging”) systems.
Pigging Systems for the Beverage Industry
Hygienic (also referred to as sanitary) pigging systems are in wide use in the beverage industry. And their use is increasing.
The technology is used with an extensive range of beverage products including ingredients such as pulps and sugar syrups. Pigging is also used with products at their final stages of processing. These include carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, spirits, fine wines, fruit juices, beer, cider plus many more.
Pigging technology uses a specialist projectile (called the “pig”) to recover the residual liquid product from beverage pipelines that would otherwise be wasted. As well as the pig, key components of pigging technology include pig detectors, pigging control systems and HMI screens, receive and launch station, pig housing, various valves, pipework plus much more.
MaximiSing Efficiency and Savings with Pigging Systems for Beverages
By recovering residual product from pipelines, pigging systems for beverages are a highly effective way of increasing yields, minimising waste, streamlining operations, boosting efficiency and improving sustainability.
In some applications where the product being pumped is expensive, such as certain concentrates and syrups, the cost savings achieved through pigging are extraordinary.
In one case, an HPS pigging system is saving a beverage manufacturer an estimated £31,500 Dollars per DAY. Here’s the case study on how HPS pigging systems are helping the beverage manufacturer increase yields and cut waste.
OptimiSing Yield and MinimiSing Waste in Beverage Manufacturing with Pigging Systems
The benefits of pigging systems for the beverage industry are extensive. They play a crucial role in recovering product, ultimately boosting yields and decreasing waste.
In a beverage manufacturing plant, there are usually lots of process lines and piping that are used to transfer product. Whenever product is transferred along these lines, there’s nearly always product residue remaining that needs removing.
Beverage manufacturers and other industries with stringent hygiene standards employ pigging systems to clean pipelines and reclaim residual product. This process significantly increases yields while reducing waste.
Without a pigging solution, valuable product would mostly go to waste during flushing or clean-in-place (CIP) procedures. This underscores the importance of implementing a pigging system in beverage production
Along with the immediate product savings, waste disposal and treatment costs also decline as there is less product wasted. In addition, due to the reduction in product waste, this means improved efficiency, easier cleaning, improved productivity, improved sustainability, and higher profits.
Reducing Water in Beverage Processing and Production
In the beverage industry, water conservation is paramount, making pigging systems a crucial tool for processors and manufacturers.
Aside from being an ingredient in the final product, beverage manufacturers rely on large volumes of water for equipment cleaning and maintaining hygiene standards. This leads to significant costs associated with treating and disposing of flush water.
Implementing a pigging solution stands out as an effective strategy to decrease water consumption and enhance profitability in the beverage sector.
The efficiency of pigging systems in recovering liquid and cleaning pipelines eliminates the need for lengthy water flushes between product transfers and batch changeovers.
Even in cases where some water flushing and clean-in-place (CIP) procedures are necessary, pigging significantly reduces their duration and intensity. This translates to substantial water savings for beverage companies.
For instance, an Australian winery employing a pigging solution has achieved remarkable results, saving 40 million litres of water and conserving 440,000 litres of wine annually. This success story exemplifies how pigging systems are making a tangible difference in water conservation for the beverage industry. Here’s more on how pigging system save beverage companies water.
Streamlining Beverage Processing and Changeovers with Pigging Systems
One of the biggest challenges’ beverage companies face when dealing with changeovers from one product to another is the amount of lost production time and downtime that can occur.
With customer preferences constantly evolving, most beverage plants are now running multiple products per line per day, including different variations of the same product along with completely different products. The result is most beverage plants spend a significant amount of time on changeovers, with many labour hours spent cleaning, adjusting, and verifying equipment setup.
This process is not only time-intensive but also resource-intensive, requiring substantial amounts of water, energy, and cleaning chemicals, and resulting in product wastage.
A major benefit of pigging is that it speeds up the changeover process and makes it more efficient. Because the HPS pipeline pig recovers nearly all the residual product in pipelines, there is less product in the pipeline after the pigging process.
This means significantly reduced cleaning and flushing requirements, leading to vastly accelerated changeover times. In fact, in certain scenarios, it’s possible to follow on instantly with the next product after pigging, eliminating the need for flushing completely.
Increasing Production Capacity and Flexibility with a Pigging System
Ever-changing customer needs and increasing competition in the beverage industry has driven a need for beverage manufacturers to expand their portfolios with a wider range of products, flavours, packaging, and choices. This has led to a surge in the number of stock keeping units (SKUs) for beverage manufacturers.
To efficiently handle this diversity of products, beverage companies require automated processing equipment that is both flexible and agile. Here, HPS pigging systems for beverages emerge as a critical technology to meet the growing demand for product variety.
By recovering practically all the residual liquid from beverage pipelines, the same line can be used for multiple products ranging from orange juice to grape juice and fine wines with minimal downtime between batches. The incorporation of a pigging system on a shared process pipeline enhances agility and adaptability, enabling beverage companies to respond swiftly to shifts in demand.
In this way, pigging systems for beverages increase the flexibility and capacity of processing and production.
Take a look at our pipeline pigging case studies >>
Other Reasons Pigging Systems are a Must for Beverage Manufacturers
In addition to their primary benefits, pigging systems bring a multitude of advantages for beverage manufacturers. These include the reduction of aeration and foaming, lowering contamination and cross-contamination risks, and enhancing environmental sustainability.
Pigging system for beverages also improve productivity and efficiency through less waste, higher yields, reduced water consumption, decreased contamination risks, faster changeovers, less chemical washouts, and increased capacity. This improves the profitability of beverage processing operations.
Crucially, pigging systems offer exceptional cost-effectiveness, ensuring a rapid return on investment (ROI) and swift payback. In most cases, the pigging system payback is nearly always less than 12 months.
So, for beverage manufacturers seeking effective solutions to enhance their processes, pigging emerges as a key technology, addressing challenges while driving operational improvements.
Explore the Benefits of Pigging Systems for Beverages
HPS Product Recovery Solutions stands as a trusted partner with extensive experience and a successful history of assisting beverage companies in enhancing their processes through pigging and liquid product recovery solutions.
Our customers include Coca-Cola, Campari, Pepsico, Buffalo Trace, Britvic, Heaven Hill, Pernod Ricard plus many more. HPS pigging technology is trusted throughout the world.
If you’re interested in transforming the efficiency, productivity, sustainability, and profitability of your beverage processes with pigging solutions, don’t hesitate to reach out to HPS. Our team of process system experts are here to help.