Complex pipework layouts, 90-degree bends, and automation integration are three physical challenges that factory operators face when contemplating how to improve their production processes.
In some facilities, these challenges can be exacerbated by the size of the production plant, with pipelines beginning and ending in different rooms, reaching ceiling height, or even having portions of pipeline that run outside the building.
The business challenges that company management face can be far more extreme. From excessive quantities of product waste and effluent, significant periods of production downtime, and costly energy bills, as well as changing laws and regulations around sustainability and product formulations, there’s a minefield of considerations required when planning facility improvements.
Technologies that assist manufacturers in facing these challenges is liquid product recovery technology. HPS Advanced Liquid Product Recovery (Pigging) Technology ensures operational efficiency and and flexibility in production, helping manufacturers exceed targets and improve their bottom line.
Advanced Liquid Product Recovery (Pigging) Technology
Pigging is a great technology for manufacturers looking to invest in waste reducing and yield increasing solutions.
By automatically inserting a projectile, known as a pig, into pipelines at the end of a batch and pushing the pig through the pipeline, manufacturers recover residual product from pipelines.
This decreases waste and effluent – one HPS client avoided spending over half a million dollars on a new waste storage facility – and increases yields, benefiting both the company and the environment.
Every HPS pigging system is custom-designed to meet the needs of the customer, but there are two components that are crucial to success: the HPS pig and the valves.
Flexible Pigs and Bend Navigation
The HPS hygienic pig is unique in the liquid product recovery industry. While other pigs available feature solid magnets and have either protruding fins, wipers, or discs, or are profiled, HPS pigs have a flexible magnetised silicone core and a specialist, full-body contact cylindrical body.
Flexible Magnetised Silicone Core
Many manufacturers who contact HPS want to know if the pig can go through 1.5D 90-degree bends.
Unlike other pig providers who require less severe or specialist bends, the HPS pig consists of a flexible magnetised silicone core bonded to a flexible silicone shell. The flexible nature of the pig ensures that there is smooth, full-body navigation of pipelines, through straight sections and around bends, including 1.5D 90-degree bends.
Cylindrical Body
The pigs that HPS supply to customers are fractionally larger than the pipeline itself, ensuring an interference fit within the pipeline.
The cylindrical body shape of the HPS pig, when combined with the flexible silicone material, fractional upsizing, and appropriate propellant pressure, ensures that full-body contact is maintained throughout the pigging sequence.
By maintaining full-body contact throughout the pipeline, HPS pigging systems provide a product recovery of up to 99.5% of residual product.
Piggable Diverter Valves and Production Flexibility
Piggable three-way diverter valves, such as the Solid Seat Ball Valve (SSBV), create a three-way connection between either two sources and one destination or one source and two destinations. They enable flexibility in production, with operators able to easily select the correct valve position from the HMI/SCADA panel.
Piggable diverter valves also enable manufacturers to reduce the number of lines required in a facility. With these valves in place, companies can choose to install one line that feeds into two destinations, ideal for those facilities where space is a constraint.
Piggable diverter valves are typically used when there is significant distance between product destinations – sometimes the two destinations may be in separate parts of the facility. There are often sharp bends included in the routes that the product takes, so being able to continue production quickly and efficiently is important.
By using HPS pigs and piggable diverter valves in conjunction with each other, manufacturers achieve faster changeovers between products by reducing the number of lines that need to be cleaned and effectively recovering product from the lines that do.
In addition to faster changeovers and reduced dedicated lines, piggable diverter valves and HPS pigs ensure that manufacturers receive increased yields, with up to 99.5% of residual product being recovered from pipelines. These additional yields reduce costs associated with:
- Waste storage, treatment, transport, and disposal.
- Raw material or ingredient cost and surplus purchasing.
- Pipeline cleaning and clean-in-place (CIP) processes.
Discover more benefits of pigging.
Further Perspectives:
The integration of HPS pigs and piggable diverter valves is essential for modern, efficient production processes, enabling manufacturers to overcome challenges such as complex pipeline layouts, waste reduction, and production flexibility. By working together, these pigging system components ensure seamless navigation through pipelines, including sharp 1.5D 90-degree bends, while maintaining full-body contact for optimal product recovery.
Piggable diverter valves further enhance flexibility by reducing the need for multiple dedicated lines, enabling faster product changeovers, and simplifying cleaning processes. Together, they deliver significant cost savings in waste management, raw material procurement, and pipeline maintenance.