Article Abstracts | March 2008
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Detecting Biofouling in Food Processing Systems
A combination of chemical engineering, fluid dynamics and optical techniques can detect the extent of biofouling on pipe walls and analyze its constituents to determine the most effective cleaning process.
by Mark Fornalik, Ethox International
Biofilms typically are bacterial and/or fungal organisms that colonize in slime films on the inside surfaces of pipes, vessels and equipment that handle and process liquids. They result from biological fouling, or biofouling for short, and can be found in all manner of industrial processes: food and beverage and pharmaceuticals manufacturing, in ultrapure water and petrochemical processing, and even in producing nuclear energy. In most processes, biofilms generally are regarded as a cause of product quality problems (spoilage, bad taste and odor), along with process downtime (increased cleaning times) and other forms of waste.
Biofouling can be very difficult to detect using traditional microbiological culturing methods, which typically involve sampling the inside of a pipe wall with a sterile cotton and culturing in a microbiology lab the organisms recovered from this swab...
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