Cleaning solutions company Green Worx senior marketing, technical and sales manager Clinton Smith says enzymatic cleaning, or cleaning in place (CIP), is increasingly being used in the industry, as more companies focus on green and ecofriendly cleaning technology.

CIP entails using a combination of chemicals, enzymes, heat and water to clean machinery, vessels or pipework without having to dismantle a plant.

Green Worx has a full range of proteases, amylases, lipases, cellulases and other enzymes used to clean food residues in food and beverage plants.

Smith says CIP saves costs because it increases system efficiency, reducing downtime and ensuring higher productivity.

Most industries have production waste, he says, adding that using chemicals in production processes presents “one of the most severe threats to nature and people”, whereas “enzymes can do the same job cheaper and do not threaten the environment; they are a part of nature and are, therefore, fully biodegradable”.

When industrial enzymes have done their job, they exit the production plant in the waste- water. The retired enzymes do not last long in the surrounding environment; nature has many microorganisms, which easily break down enzymes into single amino acids, he explains.

“With enzymes we can maintain the living standards we have today while preserving the environment for our children,” Smith says, adding that they also reduce the consumption of raw materials, energy and water, subsequently benefiting the environment and industry.

Further, Green Worx’s CIP improves cleaning by targeting specific soils that create cleaning challenges in food and beverage processing units. This natural, ecofriendly solution has a proven track record of effectively cleaning membranes and heat exchangers – and outperforming conventional cleaners.

The company obtains the technology from Europe and applies it to South African specifications.

Surgical Cleaner
Green Worx has also developed an enzymatic surgical instrument cleaner to address the challenge of expensive imported products. Green Worx has developed a local product at half the cost.

The Odorite Ultra Surgical Instrument Cleaner is a pretreatment cleaning agent used to recover all reusable immersible instruments prior to disinfection.

The multi-enzyme action provides rapid results when used in soaking trays, ultrasonic baths or scope washing units.

Smith says the enzymes used in Green Worx’s detergent formulations for surgical-instrument reprocessing results in faster cleaning cycles at lower temperatures while achieving an effective breakdown of organic soils.

Odorite can be used in manual and automatic reprocessing and is cost effective as it extends the lifetime of endoscopes.

It removes blood, fat, carbohydrates, starches and protein from surgical instruments and scopes in five minutes.

The product is designed to clean in difficult conditions where instruments are heavily contaminated; it is also effective in cold water.

Smith says the product is suitable for use in hospital surgeries, dentistry, clinics and any other institution that uses surgical instruments.