"Our product safety has increased significantly"
With the help of Protox, Skanderborg Bryghus installed a new system that was supposed to improve product safety and the quality of especially low- and non-alcoholic products. What they were specifically asking for was a solution that could ensure that their bottles were cleaned and disinfected as efficiently as possible before the various products were filled.
Skanderborg Brewery is one of Northern Europe's most modern and high-tech breweries, which is also one of Denmark's largest organic microbreweries. They produce both beer, soft drinks, so-called "alcopops" and cider, and the purity of the products themselves is top notch. In relation to product safety, however, there is a greater risk associated with producing low- and non-alcoholic products in terms of microorganisms and bacteria. Therefore, Skanderborg Bryghus wanted to make sure that the bottles are also as clean as possible before they are filled, which is why they used Protox:
"Of course, we pasteurize our products before we fill them in bottles, so the risk in our production was low in advance. But we had a desire to improve product safety even more. We could do that by adding chlorine dioxide to the water we rinse the bottles with, because it has a disinfecting effect, but is still categorized as drinking water," says Kristian Olesen, director of Skanderborg Bryghus.
With over 15 years of experience with the use of chlorine dioxide in various contexts, Protox has long known about the many advantages of the agent, and they have great expertise in the field. Chlorine dioxide has practically become part of Protox's DNA, because the agent is both highly effective and gentle for various disinfection tasks. In other words, you can solve a great many challenges with chlorine dioxide without creating new problems that can have a negative effect on either people, living environments or nature. And exactly that is the essence of what Protox stands for.
Many advantages
According to Henrik Møller Jørgensen, technical manager at Protox, there are even more advantages to using chlorine dioxide to disinfect bottles in breweries. That's because chlorine dioxide
It therefore makes very good sense to use chlorine dioxide to disinfect bottles - especially when they are to contain organic, non-alcoholic products. There will always be biofilm in pipes and tanks if the systems are not cleaned. Chlorine dioxide eliminates the risk of biofilm accumulation, and because the use of chlorine dioxide does not create a dangerous residual product, it is both gentle and effective at the same time.
- is extremely effective in very low concentrations compared to other disinfectants.
- removes biofilm and cleans pipe systems and tank systems when in use.
- is not on the list of the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's list of unwanted substances.
- is effective in such low concentrations that it can neither be smelled nor tasted in the water used to rinse the bottles.
- breaks down into salt, water and oxygen as soon as it is exposed to light.
It therefore makes very good sense to use chlorine dioxide to disinfect bottles - especially when they are to contain organic, non-alcoholic products. There will always be biofilm in pipes and tanks if the systems are not cleaned. Chlorine dioxide eliminates the risk of biofilm accumulation, and because the use of chlorine dioxide does not create a dangerous residual product, it is both gentle and effective at the same time.
Tests and new possibilities
In collaboration with Protox, Kristian Olesen and his team therefore arrived at the solution, which has been in use for several months. He says that the decision to choose Protox for the task was a no-brainer:
"We targeted someone who already had a food-approved product, and Protox had that. That's why it was easy for us to choose them," says Kristian Olesen.
A few months of dialogue and various tests went by before the system was installed, because Kristian Olesen and his team naturally wanted to be sure that using chlorine dioxide in the cleaning process now also had a meaning:
"It was important for us to get some kind of guarantee that this system had an effect. So, in collaboration with Protox, we have done some tests which showed that the bottles that were rinsed with water added with chlorine dioxide were cleaner than the bottles that were rinsed with plain water.”
Through the many years of experience with chlorine dioxide, there was no doubt at Protox that it would have an effect. But the customer must always feel comfortable using the various solutions, and therefore dialogue, cooperation and advice are some of the key keywords for Protox's work.
Fortunately, chlorine dioxide can improve product safety at Skanderborg Bryghus without at the same time creating new problems that could be a nuisance for employees, the working environment or the surrounding nature. Therefore, the use of chlorine dioxide is completely obvious, and the extra safety measure is as if created for the brewery's already impressive efforts to run a business that is more gentle than most in relation to the impact on nature and the environment.
Part of circular system
Skanderborg Bryghus doesn't just make organic products – it also uses its neighbors to run a more sustainable business. This happens through a "circular system", where hot steam from RenoSyd's waste incineration is used on the one hand to heat the water in the brewery's production. The excess heat from the production is then sent on to the District Heating Plant, which is located on the other side of the brewery. Finally, the residual product "worm" is used as cattle feed by a local farmer.
"At Protox, we are happy to be part of the circular system. One of our absolutely central core values is that we want to protect our nature. That is why we are constantly looking for the product that requires the least possible chemistry to solve the task. Right now we are probably the ones in Denmark who know the most about chlorine dioxide, and because we have worked with it in various respects since Protox was founded, it has gradually become part of our DNA".
That's what it sounds like from Bo Mogensen, director of Protox. He is happy that the brewing industry is really starting to see the many good properties of chlorine dioxide. And it also makes good sense to use it to disinfect your bottles. In addition to the fact that the system and the use of chlorine dioxide gives Skanderborg Bryghus greater product safety for existing products, it also opens doors in relation to product development of new products in the future:
"For us, it gives us the opportunity to develop more low- or non-alcoholic products, because we have eliminated the product safety risk that was
before, by using the solution with chlorine dioxide from Protox", says Kristian Olesen.
Easy maintenance and top safety
Although it may sound complex with a reactor and various components to be mixed, it is an easy and safe system:
"Skanderborg Bryghus receives daily operation reports that the system itself generates. Protox also has access to these reports. This way we can always provide the best support. So both operational and quality security are top notch," says Henrik Møller Jørgensen from Protox.
Contact us to find out more about the many possible uses of chlorine dioxide – for example disinfection of bottles, process equipment and the like.
Email: info@protox.dk · Telephone: +45 7550 4022
