When opting for a more powerful and effective tank cleaning solution, one might expect higher costs from increased water and energy consumption. Not so with the Scanjet Bio 25 rotary jet head, which beats lesser cleaning devices in every respect, including operating costs — as the famous Köstritzer brewery (part of the Bitburger Braugruppe) have discovered to their delight.

For most of its nearly 500 years of brewing heritage, Köstritzer has been producing its traditional black beer for the German domestic market. Lately, however, the beer has been gaining more fans in export markets – sold already in over 50 countries around the world, and counting – and along with the growing demand came the need to expand production facilities.

Having recently added new 1,400 hectolitre combined fermentation and storage tanks to the line-up, when it came to the choice of tank cleaning equipment, Mr Steffen Wetzig, the technical operations manager at Köstritzer, didn’t want to settle for the usual ‘stationary spray ball’ -type devices; he wanted something more effective as well as more ecologically sustainable.

Turning to USE GmbH, the German representative of Scanjet, known for their expertise in brewery tank cleaning, an enhanced solution to Köstritzer’s tank cleaning needs was devised. As a result, the new tanks are now cleaned using the advanced Scanjet Bio 25 four-nozzle rotary jet head (RJH), which is ideally suited for most food and beverage applications — especially brewing

Self-powered by the flow of the cleaning fluid and driven by its patented gear mechanism, the Bio 25 rotates 360° around both its vertical and horizontal axis, thus covering all internal surfaces of the tank — as well as constantly cleaning itself in the process. Capable of operating with inlet pressures of 4-10 bar and flow rates of 6-45 m3 per hour, the Bio 25 is extremely versatile and adaptable, and able to be deployed in a range of different cleaning systems and across a wide range of tank sizes and shapes.

It isn’t perhaps an entirely fair comparison to pit a spray ball cleaning device against a rotary jet head, given that the latter is not only more sophisticated in engineering terms but also more powerful by orders of magnitude — and indeed, the Bio 25 RJH does provide cleaning performance vastly superior to what any spray ball-based system ever could. So in terms of the cleaning outcome, the Bio 25 certainly delivers significantly better results, very much as expected.

Another very important difference compared to a traditional spray ball, the Bio 25 actually consumes much less water during a typical cleaning cycle. Considering what a precious and valuable resource water is, that brings obviously significant benefits, both financially and environmentally. And along with reduced water consumption, detergent and energy use are also correspondingly reduced, further lowering the operating cost and environmental impact of the cleaning process.

And as if all that isn’t enough already, the Bio 25’s legendary reliability and extremely low maintenance requirements translate to minimal downtime, improved operational efficiency and above all the incredibly low total cost of ownership (TCO) that the Bio 25 is renowned for. Which means that the question for any brewery manager isn’t so much “why choose the Bio 25”, but rather “why even consider anything else?”

In ditching the spray balls and opting for the Bio 25, Mr Wetzig clearly knew what he was doing, and has been proven right in the choice: in his own words, the two and a half years of tank cleaning since the Bio 25s were fitted have been completely trouble-free, the cleaning results are exemplary, and the amount of water and other resources saved is impressive already — and getting all the time more so with each additional cleaning cycle.