How to Size a CIP System for a Dairy or Liquid Egg Plant
CIP is the equipment most often bought too small. How to size tank volume, flow and the number of tanks from your circuits and cleaning window.
Egg Equipment
Liquid Egg Storage Tanks
Liquid egg tanks do two jobs. Buffer tanks sit between the breaker and the pasteuriser, converting the surge flow of a breaking machine into the constant flow a pasteuriser needs. Storage tanks hold pasteurised product chilled until it is packed or used.
Overview
What decides the result
Both are temperature controlled, because liquid egg is an excellent growth medium and time at temperature is the variable that matters most.
Equipment in this category
Standard construction
- Pasteurisation and refrigeration tanks with an integrated condensing unit, e.g. 1,000 L
- Liquid egg cooled to about 4 °C straight after breaking and filtering
- Slow agitator to keep whole egg and yolk uniform without foaming
- Insulated shell, sanitary outlet, CIP connection and temperature control box
- SUS304 stainless steel on all product contact surfaces, polished to Ra 0.6 μm, argon-shielded welds
Built to order
Buffer and storage tanks are built to order with agitation, insulation and cooling specified for the duty. Tell us your breaking line throughput and how long product needs to be held.
Send my requirements →How to choose
- Buffer between breaker and pasteuriser
About 30–60 minutes of breaking output is usually enough to steady the flow into the pasteuriser.
- Chilled storage before filling
Size to the volume you pack in one filling run, kept at about 4 °C. Separate tanks for white, yolk and whole egg if you sell all three.
- Match the filling method
Bag-in-box and aseptic bags are filled in batches, so plants that use them keep more storage tanks than plants that fill bottles continuously.
Not sure which model fits your throughput?
Send your daily volume and your site conditions. We will recommend a model and explain the reasoning — including a smaller machine than you asked for, if that is what makes sense.
Where this equipment fits in your line
Downstream
Complete lines
Engineering guides
Starting a Liquid Egg Plant: Capacity, Yield and the First Equipment List
Work back from your egg supply, not forward from a machine rating. How to size a first liquid egg line and which stages buyers most often forget.
Information we need to quote
- How many eggs per hour does your breaking line run, and for how many hours?
- Buffer tank, chilled storage, or both?
- How long does product need to be held before packing?
- What cooling media are available on site?
- Local voltage and frequency?
Questions buyers ask
How big should the buffer tank be?
Large enough to smooth the surge from the breaking machine into constant flow through the pasteuriser, but no larger — liquid egg sitting in a tank is time at temperature you do not want. We size it from your breaker throughput and pasteuriser flow rate rather than from a standard range.
Why cool liquid egg so quickly?
Liquid egg is an excellent growth medium. Cooling it to about 4 °C straight after breaking keeps bacterial load low before pasteurisation, which is what lets the pasteuriser do its job.