In-Line
About
VBact has developed a novel technology to detect and enumerate bacteria in water in real time. VBact has encapsulated the technology into a “Lab in a Box” concept, integrating the whole analysis processes into a small footprint instrument, with the vision to place the system along the production lines.
One of VBact’s main applications is in-line, continuous monitoring of water systems. VBact has designed the “In-Line Bacterial Water Scanner” system model to answer this unmet need. This system quantifies automatically and continuously the number of bacteria in water in real time.
The Challenge
Today, most food & beverage production plants are operating continuously 24 hours a day. Operating these production plants is highly demanding, and requires tight and sensitive continuous control over the quality and safety of the products. Since today bacterial monitoring is only done manually, the plants do not have continuous information on the bacterial level at the production lines and exposed to losses and product recalls.
Another challenge is to establish a new streamline process to integrate a fully automated bacterial monitoring method without adding large overhead on the plant operation and budget.
A leading beverage plant, producing various branded beverages, requested to place the In-Line Bacterial Water Scanner at the plant water entry pipe, without any changes to its infrastructure. The main goal was to monitor and validate the bacterial quality of the incoming water from the water utility.
Goals
Goals
-
Provide continuous automate bacterial enumeration around the clock - instead of the current process, of collecting few discrete manual water samples only during daylight time
-
Durable monitoring of the plant water entry pipe 24/7 - withstand changes in water pressure, environmental climate changes – cold to hot ambient temperatures and environmental pollution
-
Detect irregularities, even for short period of time
-
Simple installation, without changes in the surrounding infrastructure
-
Use a simple bypass connection adjacent to the main pipe
The Solution
The In-Line Bacterial Water Scanner was connected to the plant water entry pipe, with a simple bypass configuration adjacent to main pipe. VBact pressure dumper and external pre-filtration unit, to prevent unexpected large particles contamination, were installed and connected to the In-Line Scanner.
Automated and continuous bacterial enumeration monitoring mode was operated and the total bacterial enumeration for 24 hours a day was recorded. For the first time, the plant received a detailed, continuous, quantitative bacterial level status of the water received from the water utility.
Trends of similar time windows, that presented increase in bacterial count above the routine normal level, were detected and reported to the plant.
An unidentified material was detected, sampled and delivered for the plant for further inspection.
Sporadic micro-particles analysis was also preformed and found some filtration gaps.
Day 1 - 24/7 Monitoring
Bacterial Total Count of network water at the plant gate
3.2
