IF YOUR COMPANY PROCESSES LIQUIDS, THIS COULD CUT YOUR BATCH CHANGEOVER TIMES RIGHT DOWN

I was chatting to one of our clients recently, and by using HPS - Product Recovery Solutions Advanced Liquid Product Recovery (pigging) Technology they’ve cut changeover times down from 3 hours to 15 minutes.

In addition to this, they often use product-to-product push, which cuts changeover times even further, literally down to the time it takes for the product to travel through the pipe.

Product-to-product pigging is possible when the products are fairly similar, in terms of colour, quality or scents, and because of the high product recovery rates of the HPS pig.

The video below is just one configuration of Advanced Liquid Product Recovery (pigging) Technology.

What you’re seeing is a product-to-product pig push, with the pig then being returned by compressed air.

Here's a quick recap about pigging for those that aren’t sure.

The blue projectile travelling through the sight glass is called a “pig”.

The HPS pig is a specialist device that saves companies that manufacture or process liquid products tens, often hundreds of thousands of Dollars, Pounds or Euros every year. 

This is because it recovers products which would otherwise be wasted as flush waste or effluent - increasing yields and capacity, reducing water and chemical usage, and cutting down on energy and labour costs, while improving environmental sustainability.  

Now, this video is particularly special because pigs are usually propelled by air.

However, in this case, the pig is travelling through the sight glass is being pushed by a yellow liquid, and recovering the blue liquid.

We’re using yellow and blue liquids here simply because they show up well on video.

They could be anything - from wines, sodas, sauces or dips to paints, soaps, fabric conditioners, chemicals or industrial lubricants.

We’ve also slowed the video down a little so you can see what’s happening (HPS pigs tend to travel pretty fast).

What's more, the yellow liquid could represent the next product, or it could represent water (another method of propelling a pig).

Using the next product as the propellent means batch changeovers are incredibly quick. There’s no rinsing or washouts required.

The time savings are massive.

So on top of the high product recovery rates keeping your household bills down, the faster changeovers and associated time and labour savings also help companies that process liquids operate much more efficiently.

Look at the separation between the blue product and the yellow product.

There is no mixing of the two colours.

No product, blue or yellow, gets past the pig.

That’s because of the unique design of the HPS pig – it maintains full body contact delivering exceptionally high product recovery rates (typically 99.5% from full pipelines, but we've measured it as even higher under test conditions)

It maintains these product recovery rates even when the pig is travelling around 1.5D 90 degree bends.

And to cap it all, when the pig is returned by air (HPS pigs are bi-directional – maintaining high product recovery rates whatever direction they’re travelling in) – take a look at the sight glass again.

It’s completely clear.

No product residue, blue or yellow, is visible on the inside of the sight glass.

Here's a still from the video:

The pig and yellow product are a bit blurred simply due to the speed of the pig.

But it shows how clear the pipe is (i.e. all product has been removed). It also shows how there's no product bypass as the pig returns the yellow liquid.

HPS provides the most advanced and innovative liquid product recovery technology available.

If you're already familiar with pigging, take a close look at some of the things HPS have been doing.

Things may well have moved on since you last looked!

If you work for a company that processes liquids, which can be anything from food and beverages to toothpaste to paints to industrial lubricants, and you want to increase yields, reduce waste, speed up changeovers and increase the efficiency and environmental sustainability of your liquid transfer operations, (and save your company tons of money) – just leave something in the comments or ping me a LinkedIn message and I’ll send over a free whitepaper which tells you all about HPS advance liquid product recovery technology.

Or I'll happily set up a call with one of our process experts.

No obligations, no tie-ins, no heavy sales pitches, no hassle.

#pigging #engineering #manufacturing #liquids #processengineering #sustainability