Cleaning & sanitisation account for almost two-thirds of pharma’s water needs. Harish Anantharaman, MD, Accelerated Cleaning Systems India Pvt Ltd explains how aqueous ozone can minimise this.
Aqueous ozone
Aqueous ozone or ozonated water has been accepted as an antimicrobial agent and cleaner by the US FDA and certified organic by the USDA. Most pharmaceutical plants have already been using ozone for disinfection of process water. However, using ozonated water or aqueous ozone for cleaning and sanitisation in CIP and COP operations has been largely ignored.
This is perhaps due to the fact that conventional ozonated water has a very low half-life and concentration limits, and requires high contact tanks and safety measures due to off-gassing limitations. Nanobubble technology (NBT) has eliminated these challenges.
Clean more with less
Today, Accelerated Cleaning Systems can produce Nanobubble Aqueous Ozone (NAO) in high concentrations without being limited by tank sizes or worrying about off-gassing. NBT helps make the ozonated water many times more powerful and potent. The resultant impact is this: you derive a cleaning liquid using no chemicals but oxygen from the air, which is 3,000 times faster and 100 times more powerful than bleach. This effectively means what bleach could achieve in 10 minutes, NAO can do in seconds, at 1/100th the concentration. Nanobubble helps achieve CT times that were never possible before.
Many savings
Using NAO in CIP and COP to replace normal water for cleaning and rinsing could reduce cleaning times and chemical use by more than 50-60% whilst enhancing outcomes significantly. This also means less water and chemicals sent to the water treatment plant. Reduction in cleaning time would generate more production time and hence generate payback.
Waste management
It does not end here. Nanobubble oxygenation of aerobic tanks can enhance output results or reduce treatment time by 40-50%…a huge saving in electricity costs and enhancing treatment capacity.
Nanobubble ozonation of effluent prior to aerobic treatment can be used to reduce recalcitrant pollutant loads in minutes and make it more degradable prior to going to aerobic tanks. When coupled with nanobubble aeration as a supplemental process to existing tanks, pharma companies can expect output objectives never achieved before at a lower treatment cost.
These small bubbles can change the way you clean and treat water. Organisations like DELL Technologiesm IIT Bombay, Shell, Bhabha Atomic Research Center and more have already harnessed this more sustainable and greener way to clean and treat, while saving money.
