In a two-phase process the bottles first enter a first carrousel and are sprayed with a hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solution. All critical points are controlled automatically to ensure maximum decontamination efficacy.
After the ‘dosing’ phase, the ‘activating phase’ takes place in a second carrousel. Here, the bottles are flushed with hot sterile air that activates the H2O2, purges out peroxides and achieves a final peroxide concentration of less than 0.5 ppm. No water rinsing is required.
Clean Box: the key to ESL technology
The Clean Box is a physically isolated ultraclean environment. To prevent the bottles becoming contaminated after H2O2 treatment, the filler/capper zone is surrounded by a HEPA filter providing a sterile air flow with an ambient overpressure of 10 Pa.
The surfaces within the Clean Box are both accessible and easy to clean.
Benefits:
• Effective and flexible, different decontamination targets – up to 5 log on A.brasiliensis and up to 3 log on B.atrophaeus – to meet the shelf-life requirements of a wide variety of products can be achieved
• Available for a wide range of bottle formats, ranging from ’single serve’ 200 ml bottles to 1 US gallon format
• Low maintenance: no moving parts or valves are installed on the two carrousels
• Small footprint
Performance
Whitebloc ESL ensures a decontamination target up to 5 log reduction on A.brasiliensis and up to 3 log reduction on B.atrophaeus upon completion of the ESL treatments. Whitebloc ESL is optimized for low to medium speed applications.
Dry H2O2 technology for caps and foil decontamination
Whitebloc ESL is equipped with a closure decontamination technology designed to handle caps (both flat and sports) or aluminium foil. During a preheating phase, the closures are exposed to a defined temperature profile, which prevents condensation and ensures a very low level of residual peroxides. No water consumption is required during production.
Despite being a robust decontamination treatment, the VHP-based closure decontamination module features a gentle technology: caps are manoeuvred using only the VHP flow or gravity, which ensures that the slipping agent remains in place; the foils are pushed forward in a pressurized VHP flow through rails shaped to change the contact points during the process.
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