2020-10-08
A leading producer of food and pharmaceutical-grade oils, waxes, oleoresins and seed flours approached Global Filter for help with processing some of their high-purity products. As a direct supplier to the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, chemicals, and animal feed industries, remaining competitive while maximizing product quality is first priority when considering purity.
Several products the customer manufactures in-house are used as substrates and additives for pharmaceutical products, such as vaccines and medications. As pharmaceutical ingredient quality and purity standards have become stricter in recent years, the customer needed help optimizing their final filtration process without having to take on significant additional operational cost.
Their highest purity products required final filtration at a level of 0.2 micron absolute. The goal was to remove any remaining fine plant particulate still present from initial processing, as well as sub-micronic carbon fines from upstream processing. Their existing 0.2 micron pleated polypropylene cartridge had the efficiency to get the job done, but could not effectively handle the particulate load.
Cartridges had to be changed after every batch to ensure the next batch could be processed without interruption, which increased the required labor and filter spend.
Global Filter recommended a change to the FG Series pleated Microglass cartridge, which offers similar retention efficiency, but with a higher holding capacity. Other benefits to the FG cartridge over pleated polypropylene cartridges include better flow characteristics and a slightly positive charge, which allows for capture of some particulate smaller than 0.2 micron.
As a result of the switch, the customer was able to cut their change-out frequency in half. Even though per-unit filter cost was slightly higher than their existing polypropylene cartridge, the savings was significant. The customer was able to process two full batches of product without changing filters, which equated to a reduction labor cost, a reduction in batch processing cost, and a total estimated savings of over $25,000 per year.
Global Filter’s extensive knowledge of media characteristics and process optimization proved to be of tremendous value to the customer.
