Method for cleaning industrial equipment with pre-treatment
AssigneeEcolab USA Inc.
InventorsPeter J. Fernholz, Brandon L. Herdt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of cleaning equipment such as heat exchangers, evaporators, tanks and other industrial equipment using clean-in-place procedures and a pre-treatment solution prior to the conventional CIP cleaning process. The pre-treatment step improves the degree of softening of the soil, and thus facilitates its removal. The pre-treatment solution can be a strong acidic solution, a strong alkaline solution, or comprise a penetrant. A preferred strong acidic solution is an acid peroxide solution. In some embodiments, the pre-treatment may include no strong alkali or acid ingredient; rather, the penetrant provides acceptable levels of pre-treatment.
Claims5
A method of cleaning soils from industrial equipment using a CIP process, the method comprising:
- (a) applying a liquid acidic pre-treatment solution to the soil, the solution comprising at least 0.25 wt-% active ingredients, the active ingredients comprising:
- a surfactant penetrant comprising a C6-C12 fatty acid;
- and an oxidizer selected from the group consisting of hydrogen peroxide, peroxycarboxylic acid compounds and mixtures thereof;
- (b) allowing the pretreatment solution to remain on the soil for a period of time sufficient to facilitate soil removal;
- (c) circulating a liquid CIP solution through the equipment after the pre-treatment solution, the CIP solution comprising about 0.5 to 3% of a dilute alkaline detergent wherein there is not a rinse step between the pre-treatment solution and the CIP solution;
- and then
- (c) rinsing the equipment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.