How do you protect your customers and operation from the risk of product recalls?
Compressed air plays a critical role in food and beverage processing and packaging, but should your air become contaminated it could result in a cost that is more than purely financial.
In brewing operations, air compressors are used to power the machinery used in bottling, canning and kegging. What’s more, there are various air-powered systems which handle, move and cool the beer as well as apply labels to bottles. And in processes such as fermentation and aeration, there is close contact between compressed air and the product.
So, there are many opportunities for the beer or ale to become contaminated from dirt, water, microorganisms and oil if your air is not compliant to international standard ISO 8573-1 2010.
Compressed air can become contaminated from the ambient air around us, the compressor or the pipework so how do you remove the risks and protect your business?
Oil contamination is especially unwelcome in brewing as it kills the yeast and therefore affects the beer’s frothing properties. Oil vapour is in the air around us and whilst it might be at a low level, once the air taken in is compressed, it is concentrated. So even if your air compressor is oil-free, you will need purification systems to remove the oil and other contaminants.
A catalytic converter (like the BOGE Bluekat) combined with an oil-flooded screw compressor is an economic alternative, and impressively, produces class 0 oil-free compressed air that complies with ISO 8573-1. It converts oil and other hydrocarbons in the compressed air into carbon dioxide and water. Apart from the clarity of the pure compressed air, this is a much more affordable option than buying and operating oil-free compressors or conventional treatment systems. Most importantly for food and beverage, it produces a reliable and pure compressed air supply.
For brewers or anyone in the food and beverage sector, this peace of mind is priceless. By reducing the capital and operational expense of moving away from oil-free air compressors, this will challenge what has long been the belief that this is the only way. This sector is now realising that there is an alternative and that businesses can remove both product recall risks from contaminants and reduce costs with a BOGE solution.
Talk to our engineering experts today for further information.