Optimal CIP Cleaning part 9: Saving CIP
17 November 2025
Smarter CIP? This way you save up to 90% of water, energy and chemicals
More and more producers want to make their CIP processes more sustainable without compromising on hygiene.
How do we do that for them?
One of the new innovations are Alfa Laval valves with smart valve control and optimized seat cleaning. They can greatly reduce the consumption of water and chemicals. With the added benefit of less energy consumption and higher line availability.
What’s the result?
1. Water: Up to 90–95% less CIP fluid during seat cleaning and less wastewater.
2. Chemistry: lower concentrations and volumes, and less neutralization.
3. Energy: less mass heating = immediately lower kWh/gas and additionally less cooling load.
4. Uptime: Up to 90% shorter installation time + easier maintenance = more uptime
Where is the biggest gain?
With mixproof valves, most shear occurs exactly when the plug opens and a narrow gap is created. If you use that moment very briefly and in a controlled manner with pulse or burst seat cleaning , you will effectively remove deposits with a fraction of the CIP volume.
The test results:
✨Burst seat cleaning (mixproof): up to ±90% less CIP fluid
✨Pulse seat cleaning (drain/single seat): up to ±95% less CIP fluid
Less water & chemicals = lower energy consumption
If less fluid goes through the valves, you also need to heat less mass and you can dose/neutralize lower.
The graph and description of burst seat cleaning show that short, powerful pulses <1 second give the same or better hygiene than conventional 2–5 s seat lifts, but with much less volume. This makes a direct difference in water, lye/acid and wastewater treatment, and reduces your thermal energy demand per CIP cycle.
Controls that make it possible
Modern control tops, such as the Alfa Laval ThinkTop V70/V50, have pulse/burst seat clean as a standard function and can be controlled from the PLC. Thanks to the responsive actuator and internal solenoids, the plug movements are lightning fast and reproducible. This allows you to set the optimal pulse patterns for each product/line and you can also validate them neatly.
Added bonus: Less downtime and easier service!
The latest ThinkTops also reduce your lifecycle costs:
✅Auto-setup (the valve ‘recognizes’ itself)
✅360° LED indication
✅24/7 self-diagnosis
✅No cover screws (= better cleanability)
✅Waterproof in any position
✅Replaceable air fittings with parallel hoses for fast service.
Curious about your savings?
We use a quick CIP audit on valves and control to determine where pulse/burst seat cleaning is most profitable and in a few weeks you will see the result on the meter.
☎️ Contact us and a quick CIP audit is easily arranged.