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Quotes - Engineering - SalesLotion line
One CIP heater for a cosmetic lotion line
A lotion line in a cosmetics plant is usually cleaned as three circuits from one CIP set: the mixing kettle, the transfer and hold line, and the filler with its hopper and nozzles. They are very different circuits. The kettle is a tank job with a spray device drawing 75–100 gpm. The transfer line is a 2-inch or 3-inch pipeline run at 5 ft/s, 30–70 gpm. The filler is a small-volume, low-flow circuit through manifolds and nozzle tubes that may take only 15–25 gpm. The one heater on the CIP supply tank has to serve all three, and the usual mistake is to size it for the kettle and then wonder why the filler circuit, which runs last and longest, never holds temperature.
The residue is the same on all three: an oil-in-water emulsion that has broken on the wall into a film of mineral oil, esters, fatty alcohols, silicone and a little polymer thickener. Silicone is the problem child. It does not saponify, it does not dissolve in water, and it comes off only when it is hot enough to flow and the caustic has a surfactant to carry it. So the circuit runs 2% sodium hydroxide with the plant's own detergent booster at 165°F, and the heater is asked to deliver that temperature to a 100 gpm kettle spray and a 20 gpm filler loop from the same tank, on the same afternoon.
Three circuits, one heater, and the small one sets the valve
The kettle circuit at 100 gpm sets the surface; a 1,200-gallon CIP tank lifted from 70 to 165°F in 20 minutes is about 2.85 MBtu/h. The filler circuit at 20 gpm sets the steam valve turndown. Size for the first, select for the second.
What the lotion line circuits run at
Caustic at 2% with a surfactant booster, held at 165°F, is the working condition for lotion residue; the fatty alcohols melt well below that, but the silicone and ester fraction needs the extra heat to flow. The kettle takes a 30-minute recirculation at 75–100 gpm. The transfer line is washed as a pipeline, 30–70 gpm by line size for 15–20 minutes. The filler circuit runs 20 gpm or less for 30–45 minutes because the nozzle tubes are small and the film inside them is thick where product sat between fills.
The acid step is phosphoric at 0.5–1% and 130°F, run weekly, mainly to clear hard-water haze from the kettle and keep the stainless bright. Rinse water is softened plant water at 120–140°F; cosmetics plants seldom need purified water on the CIP rinse. The CIP supply tank is 1,000–1,500 gallons and recirculates on every circuit, since dumping 2% caustic with surfactant once-through would be expensive and hard on the drain.
The heater that serves all three
A U-tube shell-and-tube with steam in the tubes and the caustic in a 316L shell, sized on the kettle circuit and the tank warm-up. A 1,200-gallon CIP tank brought from 70 to 165°F in 20 minutes is about 2.85 MBtu/h, roughly 2,950 lb/h of 15 psig steam, and that surface is more than the filler loop will ever use. What the filler loop needs is a steam control valve with enough turndown to meter a fifth of the kettle flow without cycling, which is a valve selection, not a heater problem.
The shell side carries a fouling allowance of 0.001–0.002 for the silicone and ester film that drops out when the tank cools, and the bundle pulls so that film can be cleaned off outside the shell. Head gasket EPDM; shell rated 150 psig at 250°F; mill-finish shell with tri-clamp ends to 4 inches, since a cosmetics CIP loop is utility piping. We put a temperature transmitter at the heater outlet and recommend the plant trend it per circuit so a filler loop that is losing heat to the room shows up as a number rather than a complaint.
To size a lotion line CIP heater
Give us all three circuits, not just the kettle. The smallest flow is what decides whether the heater holds temperature on the last wash of the day.
- Kettle spray gpm and wash time
- Transfer line size and length
- Filler circuit gpm and wash time
- CIP tank volume and warm-up allowed
- Caustic strength, booster used, and set point
- Steam pressure at the heater inlet
Call and talk it through with an engineer: 1-805-484-2992
Lotion line questions
Yes, provided the steam valve was chosen for the range. The exchanger has five times the surface the filler loop needs, which is fine; surface in hand does no harm. The valve has to pass a fifth of the kettle steam flow smoothly, so we specify a valve with 30:1 turndown or a pair of valves in split range. Without that, the filler loop overshoots, the valve slams, and the outlet swings.
Because silicone and ester film that lifts at 165°F separates out again as the caustic cools between circuits, and it deposits on the next cool surface the solution meets, which is the heater bundle when the tank restarts cold. A plant that sees its heater outlet temperature fall through the week is watching that film build. A removable U-bundle lets maintenance take it out and clean it on the floor.
Hot-process emulsions leave the heavier wax and fatty alcohol film and want the 165°F wash. Cold-process lotions, with liquid esters and silicone, leave a thinner film that lifts at 150°F with surfactant, but the heater is sized for the hot-process case because the kettle will see both. Run the lower set point when you can and keep the surface for the day you cannot.
Not on the steam-to-caustic duty. The gaskets in a plate pack do not like steam-side pressure and temperature cycling, and a cosmetics line cycles the heater three times per clean. A plate pack earns its place on recovery: 165°F return against 60°F makeup in a plate exchanger gives back 60–70% of the heat. The steam heater stays shell-and-tube and gets smaller as a result.
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