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  • Plate and frame cleaning?

    Howdy Hi all,
    What are the procedures currently being used to clean/sanitize a plate and frame filter following filtration?
    All thoughts are appreciated!
    Glacier Brewing Company
    406-883-2595
    info@glacierbrewing.com

    "who said what now?"

  • #2
    General guidelines from the filter, sheet and powder suppliers is to wash off the filter bed with water )or carefully scrape off with a non metal scraper to ensure the sheet surface is not damaged, followed by a wash off)

    Flood the filter with fresh water (forward flow) until completely flooded. Pressure test the filter to ensure alignment OK and no leaks, then recirculate with hot water at 80 deg C until all exit ports / sample points / bleed valves are 80 deg C. Recirculate at this temperature for a further 20 minutes, then allow to cool down or flush out with fresh sterile water. All of this to be in forward flow.
    This should be carried out immediately after completing a filter run.

    Note that this method is only OK if you have a metal (stainless or resin coated non stainless) filters

    If you have noryl plates, I understand you cannot use these temperatures, and would do better to chlorine dioxide or peracetic acid. Look out for one of the earlier discussions on this topic, suggest entering "Noryl" into the search engine.

    Do a hot caustic wash through the filter sheets just before stripping them off, discarding and replacing with new. Do not try to caustic clean the filter sheets and re-use them. The filter sheets contain resins etc which can be dissolved in hot caustic, and the sheets will be weakened severely.

    \Once replaced, sterilise the whole sytem before filtering for the first time of course

    If sealed up, you should be OK to leave the filter for two or three days before re-using. Any longer and you really should resterilise before starting another filter run.

    Hope this helps
    dick

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks, Dick. As always, a virtual cornucopia of brewhouse knowledge!
      Glacier Brewing Company
      406-883-2595
      info@glacierbrewing.com

      "who said what now?"

      Comment


      • #4
        One thing I would add to Dick's post is that you may want to backflush the filter with cold water after scraping off the sheets. This will remove any proteins that are imbedded in the filter sheet. A cold backflush of 10-20 minutes will work wonders. If you have proteins trapped in the filter sheet and you ramp up the temp from the onset you may bake them into the sheet and lose some filtration surface area for future filtrations. A good idea is to also pay attention to your differential pressures and backflush at .2 Bar higher than your highest inlet reading. A proper cleaning cycle should yield savings but you'll know it wasn't performed correctly if your next filtration starts off terrible. Good luck!
        Mike Jordan
        Brewmaster
        Boxing Cat Brewery
        Shanghai, P.R. China
        michael@boxingcatbrewery.com

        Comment


        • #5
          I'm not disputing the ability to backwash filter sheets, but it is not generally considered worth doing as the differential pressure is so low that you do not wash very much out of the inlet side. There is a the risk of streching the sheets somewhat and creating an unstable support for the filter bed. Other people in brewing companies I have worked in reckon the sheets tend to cut through more readily on backwash than forward wash - no obvious reason or explaination though, just anecdotal.

          The other problem is that you can wash loose material, supended in the water, either from the water itself or as beer residue, into the discharge side of the filter sheet, which is not such a fine finish as the normal inlet side. This particulate matter can then wash out again once the filter is back in forward flow. This is probably more critical for long shelf life beer though. I suspect the other main reason is simply cost - lack of a back wash facility reduces initial installation costs, and the benefits of back washing do not compensate for the increased turnround time and liquor usage, particularly in a 24/7 operation

          I agree with using cold water for wash off / flushing through. The use of hot water, either in forward of reverse flow tends to bake proteins on and blind the sheets earlier than cold flushing.

          Cheers
          dick

          Comment


          • #6
            I agree whole-heartedly on the use of a cold back flush to rinse the plates, it then takes half the time to clean the plates.

            Depending upon the size of your filter, you might consider soaking the plates in a cleaning solution (caustic). I have used a good sized tub and soaked overnight in a cold 1 - 2 % solution with good results.

            After the soak, I also give the plates a light brushing with a soft bristled brush, before hosing them off.

            Hope this helps.

            Aaron

            Comment


            • #7
              Now I remember why I've sworn to never use a plate and frame filter ever again! Not that I'm likely to get back into brewing anytime soon...

              Cheers, Tim

              Comment


              • #8
                Yes. they are messy things, no matter how hard you try and keep things simple and clean. Tank filters have a lot going for them purely on the housekeeping front.

                Cheers
                dick

                Comment


                • #9
                  A little clarification...I prefer to open the filter and scrape off the filter cake media before backflusing/sterilizing the filter. If you're using a small plate filter as a polishing filter there is no real frame support and thus no DE cake to scrape off. I have never felt comfortable soaking the pads in a chemical solution to clean the pads. The plate and frame filters I've used have been very large so this wasn't real feasible. If you're planning on using a small 40x40 plate filter with limited sheets I would agree with Dick, not worth the liquor use to backflush/sanitize. Throw away the sheets after a single use then clean, reload and sterilize for the next filtration run. I've had good luck with backflushing/sterlizing large multi-chamber plate and frame filters but will admit it takes 1-2 hours and uses alot of liquor water which may lead to more headaches.
                  Mike Jordan
                  Brewmaster
                  Boxing Cat Brewery
                  Shanghai, P.R. China
                  michael@boxingcatbrewery.com

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Just stumbled across this thread.

                    We have a Velo 40x40 plate and frame with about 50 noryl plates. We use Carlson sheets to filter 15 bbl to 60 bbl runs.

                    Our approach is to load the filter, CIP forwards with 40 min caustic and 10 min acid loops at 140 F. We cool the filter with tap water and do a ClO2 sanitization loop. Occasionally we need to backflush the filter mid- transfer starting with cold water warming it up then cooling it down again. After transfering we rinse with cold water, dispose of the filter pads and finally rinse or brush the plates as needed.

                    Does anyone have a feel for DO pickup across a p&f filter? What do folks do to pack and purge the filter and lines to minimize this? We don't have an inline DO meter, but I imagine it would be informative. I hope to refit a used Zahm 7000 and start running airs tests to get a handle on our DO levels.

                    -Clarke.
                    Clarke Pelz
                    Cynosure Brewing

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      DO2 pickup should be next to zero if the filter and ALL associated pipework is completely purged out with deaerated water (or CO2 / N2 if using a horizontal leaf filter) before introducing beer. You need to purge out for quite a long time, and at flow rates high enough to achieve turbulent flow (say 2 metres / sec) to scour out any air. Ensure the water is fed in at the lowest point, and suitable bleed off points ar fitted and used at the highest points where bubbles of air might reside. If you do not use deaerated water, you will pick up a huge amount of oxygen at the interface, even when you have got virtually neat beer running into the tank.

                      Ensure the receiving tank is thoroughly deoxygenated. The most effective way, but rather expensive, is to completely fill with water, then run out from the bottom whilst applying CO2 top pressure. Alternatively, merely purge the tank out with CO2 from the bottom for a few minutes and leave to stand for a while to allow the CO2 to form an inert blanket.

                      Providing the additions you then make, including KG slurry is thoroughly deoxgenated by bubbling CO2 / N2 through it then you will not add anything. Common sources of DO pickup are due to leaking pump seals (particularly the mechanical seal at the drive shaft) and poor joint seals between pipe sections.

                      Cheers
                      dick

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        If dosing DE onto your plate and frame filter you may consider using very thin cellulose sheets. These sheets are placed in between the pad and frame. The DE is dosed onto the sheet with the pad just behind. After filtration the cake with sheet will simply peel of the pad with no scraping. This extends the pad life greatly for a very small cost. Limiting the amount of wash down time and water pressure the pad sees will also help extend pad life.

                        Back flushing plate and frames is hard on pads due to no reverse flow support. I would not suggest it due to risk of tearing and following improper filtration. When it is time for pads from a DE dosed filter to go, then remove spent cake and rinse and then do a full CIP with old pads. Pads will be ruined after CIP but thorough hand cleaning will be much easier. (note Noryl warning above...know your filter material limits!)

                        Sterilization is typically hot water, which can be recirculated after a time established based on your plants realities, to help lower costs. I have also used phosphoric acid to pH 2 on brewpub DE impregnated pad, plate and frame filters, with good results. Wild yeast is still an issue at these pH's though. Good Luck
                        Last edited by Tbrew; 09-01-2004, 06:33 AM.

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                        • #13
                          C02 Purge

                          You might like to know that years back (I feel old using that phrase!) I read in Brewing techniques about a Weinstephen study on Co2 tank purging. They showed that a single purge @ 5psi removed about 50% of oxygen and a double pruge rasied that to over 80%. After that the curve went flat with the 3rd and 4th pruge not having enough effect to make them time/$ effective.
                          So thats what I always do, pressurize to 5psi and purge, then repeat. Then presurize to 10 psi for the transfer, bleeding off the head space, thus leaving a Co2 "blanket" above the beer. The filter is purged with brewing water (not Deairated) Works for me, but Im not bottling.........
                          Brewmaster, Minocqua Brewing Company
                          tbriggs@minocquabrewingcompany.com
                          "Your results may vary"

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