The validation of final rinse water quality in a CIP procedure is essential and should be carried out very rapidly to avoid water loss. A METTLER TOLEDO Thornton system ensures fast, accurate determination of conductivity and TOC, significantly reducing wasted water and time.
CIP procedure
CIP cycles are critical procedures in the pharmaceutical industry and involve the cleaning of lines or formulation vats. The equipment is cleaned using acid and base solutions and then rinsed with purified water.
One of our customers is a pharmaceutical laboratory that wished to validate the quality of its final rinse water downstream of an in-line CIP process.
Requirements
The water used in the pharmaceutical industry should respond to very strict quality requirements. Measurement of TOC and conductivity are indispensable in the detection of impurities that are capable of contaminating batches of pharmaceuticals or degrading water purification systems. Both cases can involve significant losses both in production quality levels and in economic terms. Measurement of TOC and conductivity also makes it possible to assess the performance of a purified or ultrapure water purification and distribution system.
Our customer was looking for a simple installation enabling the simultaneous measurement of conductivity and TOC to replace the two systems they had been using. In addition, TOC measurement would have to be carried out virtually in real time, as the previous system required 20 minutes before an accurate result could be obtained, leading to a huge loss of water and valuable technician’s time.
Effective solution
METTLER TOLEDO proposed a conductivity and TOC solution comprising the following Thornton components:
The customer fitted the conductivity sensor upstream of the TOC sensor and used the multi-channel, multi-parameter capabilities of the 770MAX transmitter to connect both sensors.
The water supply valve to the 5000TOC is controlled based on the measurement from the conductivity sensor. When the conductivity of the rinse water decreases below 100 μs/cm, the water supply valve for the TOC sensor opens. Likewise it shuts when conductivity exceeds the set limit. Control of the electrovalve makes it possible to ensure that the TOC sensor will never be degraded by excessively contaminated water. Once the supply valve to the 5000TOC is open, evaluation of the rinse water takes place in less than one minute.
Now, contrary to the previous situation, our customer has found that loss of enormous quantities of water by waiting for the TOC analyzer to deliver its measurement, has been avoided.
Compact, rapid system
One single transmitter makes it possible to measure two parameters simultaneously: conductivity and TOC. The 770MAX also manages the water supply valve of the TOC sensor. Alarms can be programmed thanks to the USP limits integrated in the software.
TOC measurement is achieved in only one minute, enabling time-savings in rinsing and almost real-time validation of conductivity and TOC.
Product update
The 5000TOC has now been superseded by the 5000TOCe. Physical and software improvements mean that the new model is even more reliable and robust than the previous version.