Optimizing Bottle Washer Performance in Cleaning Returnable Glass Bottles for Reuse in Beverage Packaging

  • Jacob Ben, Aezeden Mohamed, Kamalakanta Muduli

Abstract

A research carried out to investigate the relationship between temperature, soaking time, and NaOH concentration of a bottle washer that processes more than 80% of returnable glass bottles annually for beer packaging. The machine subjected to two different speeds, 40,000 bottles per hour (BPH) and 46,000 BPH. Temperature, NaOH, and additives concentration of the three soaking baths 1, 2, and 3 were within required control ranges. Under both speeds, caustic solution baths 1, 2, and 3 had average temperatures of 60 °C, 80 °C and 60 °C, respectively, while average NaOH concentration at 1.99%, 1.81%, and 1.66 % respectively for the three baths. At the average operating speed of 46,000 BPH for returnable glass bottles, 450,095 bottles were processed when operating the bottle washer for 24 hours. The empty bottle inspector rejected 8.44 % of the total processed bottles. At the reduced speed of 40,000 BPH, a total of 430,812 bottles processed within 24 hours operation with the EBI rejecting 4.18 % of the total processed bottles. The findings show that at the same temperature, NaOH and additive concentrations, cleaning is more effective when bottles subjected to longer soaking times.

Published
2020-06-01
How to Cite
Jacob Ben, Aezeden Mohamed, Kamalakanta Muduli. (2020). Optimizing Bottle Washer Performance in Cleaning Returnable Glass Bottles for Reuse in Beverage Packaging. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(7), 8149-8159. Retrieved from http://sersc.org/journals/index.php/IJAST/article/view/24640
Section
Articles