CIP (clean-in-place) system with solution recovery: water, caustic and acid tanks on one skid for a fruit and vegetable processing line
Multi-tank recovery CIP skids for fruit and vegetable processing lines · Single-use against reuse, a chemical tank and a rinse-recovery tank, caustic 1–3% at up to 80–85 °C and acid 1–2% below 70 °C, membrane recovery of spent caustic, and pulp deposits in plate heat exchangers
This page covers CIP skids with separate tanks for water, caustic and acid, plus pumps, a heat exchanger and a valve manifold, that store cleaning solutions for reuse across cycles, as fitted to fruit and vegetable processing and aseptic lines. Ask three things first: which circuits may share reused solutions and which must stay single-use, how spent caustic is kept clean and at strength, and how the line's heat exchangers will be cleaned of product deposits.
Multi-tank CIP skids with solution and rinse recovery for food processing lines, with fruit and vegetable juice lines as the example. CIP principles, line velocities and tank spray devices as a whole are covered on the CIP (clean-in-place) system page, GMP-validated skids on the Cleaning-in-place (CIP) system for pharmaceutical plants page, the sterilizing step on the Automated CIP/SIP system page, supply and return pumps on the CIP circulation pump page, detergent dosing and strength control on the CIP chemical dosing unit page, and spray devices on the Spray device page. Drainage, cleaning chemicals sold alone and manual washdown units are outside this page.
CNFX editorial research · Sources checked October 12, 2026 · 3 sources
Single-use or reuse: what a second and third tank buy, and what they risk
Rodem, a sanitary equipment supplier, explains that a single-tank CIP system has downtime while the tank fills and drains for each step; a second tank dedicated to chemicals allows the chemical to be reused, and a third tank recovers rinse water from one cycle for the next cycle's pre-rinse. Its comparison sets single-use CIP at low capital cost, small space and low contamination risk but high water, energy and effluent costs and longer cycles, against recovery CIP at higher capital cost, more space and a higher contamination risk to be mitigated with proper controls, but lower ownership costs and shorter cycles; it names allergen cross-contamination and recapture of final rinse water as reasons for multi-tank systems, and multi-circuit skids for cleaning more than one process at once. [1]
Give the supplier the circuits to be cleaned (tanks, lines, heat exchangers, fillers), the products and allergens on each, the soils, the cleaning chemicals and their concentrations and temperatures, the water and steam available, and the effluent limits.
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Keeping reused caustic clean and at strength
Pall's application bulletin describes food and beverage CIP as caustic at 1–3% and up to 80–85 °C, acid at 1–2% below 70 °C, and hot and cold rinses. In its case, a dairy using 500 t a year of 50% caustic soda, 12.5 million litres of water and 1,700 t of steam for CIP was discharging effluent that still held up to 1.0% caustic while its process needed 2.0%; a 50 nm ceramic crossflow microfiltration unit removed suspended solids, including denatured protein and fat, so the caustic could be reused after adjusting its concentration, giving permeate below 10 NTU, using 0.8–1.2 kW per 1,000 L filtered, and cutting CIP solution discharge by up to 85% and operating cost from $420,000 to under $240,000 a year. [2]
Editorial calculation: 500 t of 50% caustic soda is 250 t of NaOH a year; effluent at 1.0% against a 2.0% working strength means about half of the caustic's strength was still going to drain. [2]
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Pulp in the plate heat exchanger: why juice lines need more than a hot caustic flush
A Novo Nordisk patent explains that pulpy fruit and vegetable juices, such as orange, pineapple, apple, carrot or tomato juice, deposit pulp in plate heat exchangers, whose plates sit around 2.2–6 mm apart and touch at hundreds of points per m², clogging or narrowing the passages. It describes conventional CIP as flushing high-pressure water and then hot lye with or without peroxide or complexing builders such as EDTA, taking around 2–4 hours, damaging rubber gaskets so they have to be replaced at shorter intervals, and still requiring the plate pack to be dismantled at intervals such as once a week; pulp left behind can be released into a clear juice heated later. The patent proposes a CIP step with pectolytic, cellulolytic and hemicellulolytic enzymes that cleans in around an hour. [3]
Editorial note: ask the CIP supplier which steps the skid runs for the heat exchanger circuit, whether an enzyme or extra step is foreseen, and how gasket life and dismantling intervals are expected to change.
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Send the circuits, soils and recovery plan together
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Compiled and source-reviewed by the CNFX editorial team.
Each manufacturer above links to the page on that company's own website where the product is listed, with the date we checked it. How we source and review
· Page last updated 13 October 2026
Buyer questions
What does a recovery CIP skid change compared with single-use?
Rodem lists higher capital cost, more space and higher contamination risk to manage, against lower water, energy and effluent costs and shorter cycles. [1]
Can spent caustic be cleaned and reused?
Pall reports a 50 nm ceramic microfiltration unit making caustic reusable after concentration adjustment, cutting CIP solution discharge by up to 85%. [2]
Why are juice plate heat exchangers hard to clean in place?
A Novo Nordisk patent explains that pulp clogs the 2.2–6 mm plate gaps and conventional CIP takes around 2–4 hours and can damage gaskets. [3]
Sources and what still needs a direct check
Sources checked 2026-10-12. Rodem and Pall describe CIP configurations and a recovery case from their own practice; a Novo Nordisk patent explains heat exchanger fouling by juice pulp.
