Alfa-Laval CIP system.

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carbob
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Alfa-Laval CIP system.

Post by carbob »

Does anyone out in the Dieselduck world have any real experience with the Alfa-Laval Cleaning-in-Place system? We have a couple of units onboard since new (2000) and now the company is asking us to put them in service. I had planned on rigging one of them up to clean tube heaters, but never got around to it; all right I didn't.......

I tried it on one of the other ships in the fleet a number of years ago, and didn't have the greatest success. Seemed like a lot of fuss and bother to go through monthly, and still end up opening the purifiers at 2000 hrs for cleaning anyway. Not to mention the extra sludge that you make during the cleaning process. Oh, and did I mention that we have 9 of the buggers?

We have been opening the Px's at 2000 hrs for cleaning, and then carry out an intermediate service at the 2nd cleaning, replacing all the seals, etc, and have been having no issues thus far.

Any information received would be greatly appreciated.
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Madzng
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Re: Alfa-Laval CIP system.

Post by Madzng »

I've sailed with CIP systems twice, once when I was Fourth engineer and again when I was Second.

If you have good quality water and no issues with the water side of the bowl scaling up then the CIP machine can have benefits.

We used to operate the CIP machine when the bowl was due a clean and then not open the purfier until the next service was due.

It would take me a while to convince the Fourth to try it out, and there would usually be foam all over the purfier deck the first time he used it, but most saw an advantage and kept using the machine.

A quick CIP before opening the purifier also saved some cleaning time for the fourth engineer when he stripped the machine down for seal change.

Are they worth it?

In these modern times when the training given and quality of crews available is declining, the use of CIP machine may well prevent some costly mistakes. Within the last year I have heard of three purifiers requiring new bowls due to incorrect assembly.

Thier benefit will very much depend upon the resources onboard. If you have enough people to clean these purifiers without delaying other jobs then maybe they are not.
Big Pete
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Re: Alfa-Laval CIP system.

Post by Big Pete »

I have sailed with the CIP system a few times and it saves a huge amount of time cleaning Purifiers, as has already been said, you only have to open the purifier for major overhauls, (bearing changes) and if you CIP clean first, that is much easier and quicker.
It is also very good for cleaning the oil heaters, which are often very difficult to clean manually.
If you spend some time permanently installing the tank/pump unit in the correct place and have long hoses with quick fit connections to the purifier and heater it only takes a few minutes to start and then it can be left to itself while you do something else, with just the occasional check on the liquid level and temperature.
Laval do supply CIP cleaner specially designed for the purpose, with additives to stop them foaming and overflowing the circulating tank. At different times they have supplied a single type for LO and FO purifiers (one Acid & one Alkaline) and a single type for both, I don't know what their current recommended chemical is.
One drawback is that these are very powerful cleaning chemicals, they are not Oily Water Seperator friendly!!! They will totally destroy your coalescer filters.
YOU MUST KEEP THE USED CLEANER OUT OF THE BILGE SYSTEM AND EITHER INCINERATE IT OR PUMP IT ASHORE.
BP
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thenorwegian
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Re: Alfa-Laval CIP system.

Post by thenorwegian »

If you have to open your purifiers every 2000hours you are doing something wrong and need to look into how you operate them (discharge intervals, product temperature).
I have served several years on a ship with 9 purifiers (5 LO running 24/7 and 4 HFO 2 in service-2 in stby); when 3rd engineers did their job the purifiers run 8000hrs between IS; MS we did at 16000hrs.
CIP-cleaning and oil change were done at 1000hrs.

If you do not have the proper AlfaLaval CIP cleaning liquid you are just wasting time, I have come across people using kerosene, MGO, various chemical cleaners and just pure water; every singel one of them claimed the CIP-equipment was junk...
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