Tank Venting Processing Steps

Air is one of the most significant sources of potential contamination in your production environment. If the air used during your process is contaminated, it will be a threat to the quality of your product and potentially reduce its shelf life.

Air flows in and out of a process tank for two reasons. The first is to replace a volume of liquid as it is pumped in or out of the tank. The second reason air will flow into a process tank is to compensate for the volume change associated with steam condensation.

Tank Vent Filter
The goal of the tank vent filter is to maintain near-ambient pressure in the tank while ensuring sterility in the tank, consequently protecting your beverage. Hydrophobic sterilizing-grade filters are commonly used as air vents on processing tanks to remove microorganisms.

Protecting Beverage Production
A high quality vent filter ensures the protection of your beverage production while meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

With their superior design and the ability to withstand multiple steam cycles, Merck’s vent filters give you a long service life, effectively improving your process economics.

• Sterilizing-grade PTFE membrane
• Integrity testable and bacteria retentive
• Robust construction validated for multiple SIP cycles
• High flow rates
• 100% integrity tested to ensure quality

To ensure you’re using the best filter for your process, contact a Merck Specialist or Technical Services.

Sizing Your Tank Vent Filter

Using the right size vent filter is critical to your process. Improper tank vent sizing can result in low pump-out rates, loss of sterility due to rupture disk or filter failure, or worst case, tank implosion. Fortunately, proper sizing is not difficult as long as the flow requirements and driving force are understood. To ensure proper sizing, contact a Merck Specialist or Technical Services.

Air used to replace a volume of liquid
Sizing the tank vent filter for pump-out or fill rate is a relatively simple process. The air flow rate will be equal to the pump-out or fill rate. Once your flow rate and pressure has been determined, use a flow/ÄP curve to determine sizing.

Air used to compensate for the volume change due to steam condensation
At the end of a tank steam-in-place procedure, steam in the tank will cool and undergo a phase change to liquid water. There is over 1,000X difference in volume between an amount of water in gas phase vs. liquid phase.

During cooling, sterilized ambient air must be allowed into the tank to prevent a vacuum. When sizing the vent filter for steam collapse, you must know the vacuum rating of the tank and its volume. The vacuum rating of the tank and its volume can be calculated based on the tank dimensions including height, diameter and wall thickness.

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