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As part of the negative effects of environmental pollution, the bioavailability of water is today a great problem that worries the whole world.

In the food sector, and specifically for the food safety area, the use and management of this valuable resource is a challenge, since the rational use of drinking water can be decisive, even in terms of business profitability. Also, the Water Control Plan is part of the Prerequisite Program that covers possible risks in the food area.

On the other hand, it is also necessary to be precise with the concept of “water quality”: if we think of the food industry, we require water for cleaning food, for the process of preparing a final food, or for sanitation of the infrastructure, among others; and for each of these uses the type of water we require is different.

In this article, we address the two aspects: how to optimize the use of drinking water and how to rationalize the use of water in the food industry.

How to optimize a rational use of drinking water

Water is essential for food and nutrition security, be it from a domestic to an industrial scale.

Water Monitoring Systems Use

These Are Some Control Strategies, Depending On The Different Scenarios:

Generate a “water culture”. That is to say, promoting at all levels of the organization a commitment to responsibility regarding the rational use of water. All and absolutely everyone, we are responsible and we can do things to take care of water. As a consequence of a critical spirit, we must ask ourselves when we need clean water and when we don’t.

Water versus energy. In the case of industries, water is closely linked to energy generation. In food safety, in turn, cleaning and disinfection processes usually require potable water, or, failing that, processes that ensure the elimination of microorganisms. If we think about temperature control systems, such as pasteurization, water consumption can be very important: the design of the process, the machinery involved, and their arrangement, among others, should be part of our priorities.

Development Of The Drinking Water Networks Control And Management System

For the development of the system, several aspects were defined, such as the boundaries between the system and the external environment of the project. Scopes and boundaries were identified, as well as the parameters in which the objectives and expectations were defined were established.

Therefore, for the development of this system, a methodology was established with which the system can be fed back in its different phases, and at the same time have a systematic development for this project.

The Methodology Used Was Integrated With The Following Phases:

  • Preliminary studies
  • Analysis and design
  • Development and execution
  • Implantation
  • Production and Maintenance

Quality Criteria For Water For Human Consumption

Water quality refers to the sanitary criteria that must be met so that its use does not pose a risk to human health. These quality criteria are based on quality parameters, whose values ​​cannot be exceeded, which are included in Annex I of RD 140/2003. They can be classified as:

Microbiological Quality Criteria

  • Chemical quality criteria
  • Physical quality criteria
  • Organoleptic quality criteria.
  • Sources of water supply

The water control plan must clearly state which is the company’s water supply source, as it will condition the rest of the actions of the plan. In practice, three situations are distinguished:

  • Food companies connected to a public distribution network.
  • Food companies are connected to a public distribution network with a deposit at their facilities.
  • Food companies are supplied totally or partially with water from their sources or catchments.

The drinking water reservoirs are the best alternative in places where the supply can be interrupted or scarce. Made of synthetic materials and with different shapes, sizes and capacities, they undoubtedly represent an ideal solution for the hydraulic installations of the home to complement each other. Depending on the water supply network, the tank acts as an alternative to any problem and allows access to the liquid at any time.

If the drinking water tank is buried, there is no problem, but if you are going to choose an outdoor one, either on the floor or in a higher area, you must consider how many people live in the home to define its capacity, in addition to the space that you have for placement.

We can have a base: from one to two people in the house, with a total area of ​​100 to 200 square meters, the deposit can be 5,000 liters. From three to five people and a total area of ​​200 to 400 square meters, the tank could be 10,000 liters.

What Are The Objectives Of A Drinking Water Tank?

The objectives are various, as we have commented previously, but we can summarize them in the following two:

Water Storage To Face Shortages

In this aspect those that our deposits have come into play.

 Easily Access The Water

Without interruptions and solving the problems of the supply cut.

Avoid Wasting Water

When brushing your teeth or shaving, close the tap; it can be opened again when you go to rinse your mouth or face.

At bath time, try to spend less time with the shower running, you can turn off the water during soaping.

Beware of water leaks in the home. A 2mm hole in the pipe will let out 3,200 liters of water per day.

Replace high-pressure showers with normal showers to save water.

Substitute a water hose for buckets of the specific size to wash the car.

The simple fact of opening a tap and finding a crystalline jet of water makes us naturalize a process that has different elements that are essential to enjoy a good shower, wash dishes, and much more. One of them, the fundamental one, is the reservoir where the water is stored, which the pipes will then take to every corner of the home. Learning how to install a water tank at home requires some skills that are worth knowing, either to place it yourself or to control that they do it accordingly.

The first thing to know is that it is a “container” that is used to store drinking water that will then go to each tap in the home. These can be directly fed (from the urban drinking water network), or they can receive the water from a cistern tank located at or below the surface level, which receives direct water from the network) and sends the water through of a bomb.

Plastics

They are the cheapest and lightest and require very little maintenance. These are widely used and are resistant to rust and corrosion. Also, contrary to what happened a few years ago, they take a long time to degrade.

Stainless Steel

They are increasingly common, are considered long-lasting, and are environmentally friendly. They do not give off a “plastic” taste in water like those made from polyethylene and they do not degrade in sunlight.

Bacteria, fungi, and algae growth are common in other types of water tanks, but not stainless steel. The main disadvantage may be the price compared to plastic and fiberglass types.

The main objective of a Water Control Plan in the food industry is to certify the safety that the water used in the processes of both manufacturing, treatment, cleaning, or use of materials and tools that may be in contact with food, is adequate and free of any type of chemical or infectious pollutant, which does not cause harmful effects on health.

Water Supply System In The Food Industry

Food industries must have appropriate facilities for water storage and distribution. Guaranteeing the safety of the water supply is based on carrying out controls from the source of the water to its use, avoiding its contamination, or detecting levels harmful to health in time. These controls will be carried out in the protection of water resources, adequate treatment in purification, management of distribution and storage systems to maintain the quality of the treated water (pipes, tanks, etc.).

The maintenance, cleaning, and disinfection of the supply system is very important when using water from wells or external companies with storage tanks. If these external companies do not have intermediary tanks, the checks will be limited to unusual situations in the distribution network, for example, a pipe break, which leads to a problem with water quality.

Water Control Plan

High-pressure Water Cutting

A high-pressure water jet is ideal for cleanly and safely separating a wide variety of materials. Materials that are difficult to cut require the use of a high-pressure water nozzle to which abrasives are added to the water. At the injector, a free jet is first generated by a high-pressure nozzle. This press water is irradiated through a mixing chamber into a focus tube made of hard metal. A negative pressure is generated in the mixing chamber and air and abrasives are drawn in through a feed tube installed on the side. In the mixing chamber, the high-pressure water jet accelerates the abrasive and carries it through the focusing tube.

The advanced and personalized IoT solutions and services for the efficient management and control of water use. The design, development, and implementation of T4 Water solution is carried out from the integration of the know-how and experience of the company’s Water and ICT engineering and consulting teams.

The services offered can include any of the aspects or areas of an IoT project: from the deployment and configuration of sensors to the selection of the most suitable communication network for each situation, through the debugging, treatment, analysis, and storage of the data and the development of DSS and custom applications for end-users.

 The data is integrated into a Management Platform accessible through mobile devices, allowing analysis based on Big Data techniques; automatic generation of reports and dashboards; real-time alarm management; organization and traceability of work processes and integration with existing systems.

IoT4Water is an advanced solution for the control of water consumption, allowing the early detection of leaks and anomalous consumption. Likewise, the possibility of sharing information with end consumers makes it a very powerful tool to meet their awareness-raising objectives on the sustainable use of water.

IoT4Water is being implemented for a varied typology of end-users, including from large water consumers with multiple dispersed consumption points to individual consumers; from private entities to public bodies. The same happens in terms of water uses, obtaining its benefits, for example, in management and control of water uses for municipal and industrial consumption, irrigation of parks and gardens, sanitation systems, water treatment, and purification facilities, etc., etc.

The industrial sector of food and beverages represents an annual consumption of around 22% of the total water and within this sector is included that of soft drinks.

This type of industry basically prepares and bottles the beverages according to very demanding quality protocols, which entail a high consumption of process and service water, in addition to the water itself that the products contain as the main component.

To achieve these advances, the technologies of the process equipment and ancillary services have been optimized, thereby increasing their performance and reducing water and energy consumption (CIP, sugar dilution, pasters, mixers, bottling lines, washing machines… etc.), and, in addition, controls and investments have been made in the factories that have made it possible to obtain notable improvements and savings.

The Systems Most Used To Achieve These Objectives Have Basically Been The Following:

  • Provision of water meters at the different points of consumption for a correct evaluation and control.
  • Optimization of cold CIP processes to reduce water and energy consumption, recovery of cleaning reagents, and NaOH.
  • Substitution of bottling chain sliders with less polluting ones.
  • Recirculation of some washes of the water treatment plants and optimization/replacement of purification systems.
  • Recirculation of pasteurization water and other factory processes.
  • Partial reuse of treated effluents for service waters.
  • Rationalization of drinking and service water consumption.

Reuse Of Effluents In A Refreshing Beverage Bottler

Although each soft drink factory can bottle different products, and the make-up water can have different origins (surface, well, and network), there are a series of common processes in their manufacturing lines, which allow us to generalize a basic scheme in relation to the consumption of water of different quality (washing, services, process … etc.). Scheme 1 is attached in the annexes, which sets out the three usual sources of supply water and the treatments to which this water is subjected to make it reach the parameters required by manufacturers in their production processes.

Effluent Treatment Plants

The discharges that are not recovered are sent to an effluent treatment plant that will purify them to reach the limits required by the Water Law at the point of discharge, depending on whether it is a public domain (river, swamp … etc. ) or from a collector that takes them to a general treatment plant.

As is known, the dimensioning of the Treatment Plant (WWTP) is directly related to the flow, but both the energy consumption, the volume of the biological oxidation ponds, and the production of sludge, basically depend on the organic load (COD ).

Digitization In The Water Cycle

To enable the water industry to take full advantage of digitization, Siemens developed the Digital Enterprise, a comprehensive portfolio of software and automation solutions. By processing all available data in a complete data model, the full potential of all systems can be optimally exploited. The result is a digital twin: an accurate, virtual model of the plant that is always up to date.

Benefits for plants  

 In industry, agriculture, and municipal services. A precondition is the end-to-end networking of systems engineering, from commissioning to operation, maintenance, and optimization of ongoing processes based on a data platform, a fusion of the virtual worlds. and real.

 Improving the quality and availability of data reduces project execution time in the real world.

The work of the hydro system is fundamentally the distribution of water from local networks at a stable pressure

These systems are used to avoid the construction of elevated tanks that provide such pressure adequately. It is a system whose use is both commercial and domestic in terms of supply and distribution.

Therefore, the use of the hydro system ranges from small industries to rural buildings, through small businesses or private houses.

Functioning

For a hydro system to work, it is necessary to use pressurized water and air, since they are systems based on the principle of compressibility. Therefore, its operation begins at the moment in which the water is supplied to the storage tank by the water company. The operating process occurs as follows.

Over time, the filters become clogged and require cleaning through backwashing. This leads to a waste of water, energy, and money. Hydro FLOW can help reduce this waste through flocculation.

Turbulence (often provided by a pump) mixes the water so that these particles come into contact and stick together, forming flocks. These batches sit on the surface of the filter, so they are easier to remove and the amount of water used in the backwash can be reduced. Flocculation also allows the filter to remove the finest particles and thus improve water clarity.

First, the water is supplied to the storage tank, where it will be stored until the pump starts working. When the pump starts, the hydro system tank begins to perform its function. In this way, the increase in the water level in the tank causes the air to compress inside the container.

When the tank pressure reaches a limit that is set on the pressure switch, the pump stops operating until the tank is completely full. In the opposite process, when the water is used, the level inside the hydropneumatic tank decreases in the same way. The pressure of the pressure switch or pressure switch therefore also decreases. This will cause a circuit to close.

When the water level drops until the tank is empty again, the pressure will increase, so that the tank is recharged with water, in the same way as at the beginning of its operation.

Advantages Of The Hydro System System

• The main advantage of a hydropneumatic system is that the pressure of the pumps can be regulated in order to adapt it to the use that we give to the system itself, both industrial and private.

• In addition, it allows maintaining a reserve of water already pressurized for those cases in which there is a general power outage.

• This type of system avoids having to install tanks on the roofs or in the upper areas of buildings (both private and industrial), so it does not overload the general structure and also avoids dampness.

• On the other hand, it generates adequate pressure at all levels so that helps devices that require water perform better.

The Signal 

Hydro FLOW units use a unique technology to transmit an electronic field to the pipe and the water inside. This technology works on all types of pipe material without the need for cutting or plumbing, making it ideal for retrofitting. The signal can travel through the plumbing network, both upstream and downstream, to protect the entire system.

Incrustation Prevention

Tartar is made up of minerals (usually calcium and bicarbonate) that dissolve in water. When water is heated (or becomes supersaturated), these minerals form a hard mass on the surface of heating pipes and equipment, preventing heat transfer, reducing efficiency, and blocking the flow.

Hydro flow units transmit an electronic field to the pipe network and to the water itself. This causes the mineral ions to form clumps that act as a starting point for the crystals, so that when the water is heated, the scale forms as fine suspended dust, which can then be carried away by the flow.

Hydraulic systems have gained use and applicability on a large scale in the process driven by industrial manufacturing technology. Although hydraulic technology is old, it is still a dominant system in the modern industrial manufacturing process. The hydraulic system could be adapted for the use of small industries to heavy industry. Part of its popularity is that no other system has been as efficient and effective at transferring energy through small tubes or hoses and other hard-to-reach parts.

The hydraulic system is used to multiply the force exerted, and to generate the maximum energy to be used to carry out the desired function. It uses fluid power actuators to perform various functions. All hydraulic systems use high-pressure fluids, also called hydraulic fluids, distributed throughout the machine or in various components of the machine to produce the desired energy.

Industrial Manufacturing Process

 Many of the items that require significant power and strength, such as tool making, are often based on hydraulic technology and processes. Automobile production assembly lines make extensive use of hydraulic systems and processes. Other heavy-duty production machines, such as those used for large-scale publishing and printing, also use hydraulic technology.

Applications

Currently, the applications of oleo hydraulics and pneumatics are very diverse, an amplitude that is mainly due to the design and manufacture of elements of greater precision and with better quality materials, in addition to more specialized studies of the materials and principles of hydraulics and pneumatics. This advance has been reflected in equipment that allows increasingly precise work with higher energy levels, which has allowed growing industrial development.

Two Types Can Be Distinguished Within The Hydraulic, Mobile, And Industrial Applications:

1-. Mobile Applications:

This uses the energy provided by air and oil under pressure, being able to fulfill the functions of transport, excavation, lifting, drilling, material handling, control, and driving mobile vehicles such as tractors, cranes, backhoes, collector trucks garbage, front loaders, truck brakes, and suspension, etc.

2-. Industrial:

In the industrial sector it is of great importance to have specialized machinery to control, drive, position and mechanize elements or materials typical of the production line, to obtain these functions the energy provided by compressed fluids is used regularly.

It Is Applied In:

  • Machinery for the plastic industry.
  • Machine tools.
  • Machinery for food processing.
  • Equipment for robotics and automated manipulation.
  • Equipment for industrial assembly.
  • Machinery for mining.
  • Machinery for the steel industry.
  • Other applications that can occur in motor vehicles, such as automobiles, aerospace applications, and naval applications, in the field of medicine and other areas in which highly controlled and high precision movements, are needed, as follows:
  • Automotive sector: suspension, brakes, steering, cooling, etc.
  • Aeronautical Sector: rudders, ailerons, landing gears, brakes, simulators, aeronautical maintenance equipment, etc.
  • Naval Sector: rudder, transmission mechanisms, control systems, specialized systems of ships or military ships
  • Medicine: Surgical instruments, operating tables, hospital beds, dental chairs, and instruments, etc.
  • As can be seen, hydraulics and pneumatics have such varied applications that they can be used even in theater, cinematography, parks, drawbridges, underwater drilling platforms, elevators, car lifting tables, etc.

The hydraulic energy process is considered a clean process, that is, it does not produce or give rise to waste or the emission of gases or solid particles that pollute the atmosphere. It starts with studying the region and it takes a lot of economic and human capital to carry it out.

Hydraulic Systems:

This can be found today in a wide variety of applications, from small assembly processes to integrated steel and paper applications. Hydraulics allow the operator to perform extremely important jobs (for example, lifting heavy loads, turning a shaft, drilling precision holes, etc.) with minimal investment by mechanical equipment by applying Pascal’s law, which says that: the pressure applied to a fluid confined at any point is transmitted without diminishing through the fluid in all directions and acts on each part of the containment container at right angles to its interior surfaces and also on similar areas.

Let’s take an example to better understand the process under which a hydraulic system operates: applying Pascal’s law and Brahma’s contributions it can be seen that an input force of, for example, 100 pounds in 10 square inches will develop a pressure of 10 pounds per square inch through the confined container. This pressure will support a weight of up to 1000 pounds if the area of ​​the weight is 100 square inches. As will be noted, the principle of Pascal’s law is realized in a hydraulic system thanks to the fluid that is used to transmit energy from one point to another. Because this fluid is almost incompressible, it is capable of instantly transmitting energy.