Turbidity Control In Soft Drink Water

Water is the key ingredient of most soft drinks today. Not only does it represent the largest ingredient by volume, its quality can greatly impact the beverage itself. Many soft drink manufacturers spend considerable effort locating their plants with access to a consistent supply of high quality water.

Incoming plant water however, usually requires some additional treatment before it is suitable for ingredient use in soft drinks. This treatment can involve carbon filters, sand filters, neutralizers, and particle control filter cartridges.

Particle control fi lter cartridges have longed played a role in helping to provide turbidity-free, good tasting water at a reasonable cost per gallon to soft drink bottlers. Conventional fi lter formats have included polypropylene or cotton string-wound fi lter cartridges, “melt-blown” polypropylene fi lter cartridges and “bag” or “sock” fi lters.

However, as bottlers continue to strive to increase product quality and process control, while driving down operating costs, they are turning to newer, more reliable versions of the fi lter cartridge, as well as a new design which has the potential to replace dozens of conventional small diameter fi lter cartridges with a single, high fl ow rate capacity fi lter element. This CUNO Application Brief describes advances made in particle control fi lter cartridge design and performance and the benefi ts they present.