Sycamore Process Engineering has completed a major upgrade project for Unilever in the UK, to replace two existing clean in place (CIP) sets, with a new state-of-theart CIP system to improve its cleaning operations, reduce downtime and lower chemical and water usage.

After a successful tender process, where Sycamore showcased its process expertise, project delivery skills and flexibility to provide the customer with an efficient CIP system. Initial work started with finalising the mechanical design in the tender process.

Due to space constraints, the design team took an agile approach to designing an efficient system while adhering to footprint and height restrictions. Furthermore, the height limitations required careful planning of the access platforms and walkways to maintain sufficient headroom both above and
below the tank access area. This ensures operators and maintenance engineers can safely access the instrumentation and process equipment positioned on the vessels.

During the process design phase of this project, significant focus was placed on the versatility of the CIP system, ensuring Unilever had maximum flexibility to run cleans when required. Each tank was fitted with its own recirculation heating and chemical dosing loop. This approach allows every tank to always be fully serviced, heated and ready to perform cleans. The five CIP delivery channels were equipped with inline heaters, allowing a trim of the final delivery
temperature to the exact setpoint required for each clean. There is a balance between operational requirements and OPEX, which is always a careful consideration for the process design team in order to provide the optimum solution.

This system also included recirculation tanks on the return lines. The main
benefits of this is it supports sterilisation routines and prevents allergen
contamination by routing allergenaffected returns away from the caustic tank. This results in a minimal circuit volume needing to be discharged and reducing chemicals, water and energy consumption.

Due to a high demand for Unilever’s products, there was a limited opportunity to complete this installation. Therefore, the CIP system was fully manufactured, pre-piped and electrically wired in Sycamore’s workshop.

Once the CIP system was fully assembled, in partnership with Unilever, a comprehensive Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) was completed, ensuring the
CIP set and its control system met the required specifications. This process
allowed Unilever’s team to review build quality, verify performance and confirm
that every element of the system complies with its operational, hygiene
and safety standards.

The pre-assembly of the CIP system also helped reduce onsite installation time with all pipework being prefabricated, ensuring Sycamore was able to safely complete the installation within the allocated time while minimising health and safety risks.

Once on site, the works were delivered under a 24-hour shift pattern, enabling
the full decommissioning and safe electromechanical removal of the existing CIP sets prior to the installation of the new system. Demanding production schedules required an agile approach to ensure the project remained on track with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.

“I’m proud to see the completed installation and commissioning of the five-channel CIP set for Unilever Burton. This was a great project to be a part of
and has left Unilever with reduced wash times, a large increase in performance and far less chemical and heat usage,” George Collins, project engineer at Sycamore Process Engineering, notes.

Overall, the project was delivered on time, on budget and in full. The system
not only improved operational reliability and hygiene control but also supported the site’s production goals with a robust and future-ready design. Sycamore is proud of the collaborative approach taken throughout and look forward to working with Unilever again on future projects.