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Tips to Minimize Contamination With Steam Sterilization
May 3, 2024 6:08 am Leave a Comment

Providing clean steam for pharmaceutical manufacturing and healthcare applications is crucial for ensuring the proper sterilization and safety of products, equipment, medical tools, and patients. Heated and pressurized clean medical steam and pharma steam effectively kill microbial contaminants and help facilities adhere to strict cleanliness criteria to comply with industry quality and safety standards. In this blog, we’ll detail helpful tips for reducing contamination in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors through steam sterilization.

Use Clean Steam

Having contaminant-free steam is important for numerous operations ranging from sanitation to humidification. Pure steam will comply with industry requirements for such processes, which dictate steam’s acceptable dryness, total organic carbon and endotoxin content, and water conductivity.

Lacking any additives or additional substances, clean steam is the result of heating one of the following water sources above 212º F until it vaporizes:
- Water for injection (WFI)
- Highly purified water (DI)
- Purified water (RO)
This process eliminates the risk of source water entrainment and, as long as you maintain these thermal conditions for the appropriate time period, it’s highly effective in eliminating bacteria and microorganisms. When holding temperatures constant, sterilization times will vary based on the type of sterilizer you’re using, an item’s material construction, whether it’s wrapped or not, and other related factors.

Use Proper Clean Steam Systems

Products for markets like healthcare and pharmaceuticals are held to high standards when it comes to safety and quality. They require high-purity processing to minimize the risk of corrosion or product contamination and comply with all industry-based regulations.

Clean steam systems help prevent bacterial growth, consisting of high-grade, non-porous stainless steel parts and assemblies for the material’s hygienic properties. A quality, reputable steam sterilization system should come with the following documentation:
- 3:1 Material certificates
- Certificate of origin
- Certificates of compliance
- Standard test reports
- Surface finish reports
The general principle behind steam sterilization is to ensure that each component or device you’re sterilizing comes into direct contact with the clean steam. Within the controlled environment of an autoclave, you can achieve the proper pressure and temperature conditions for that steam and sterilize items for the necessary time period.

Steam sterilizers are available in two basic varieties: high-speed pre-vacuum sterilizers and gravity displacement autoclaves. Utilizing a vacuum pump to pull air from the sterilizing chamber before steam enters, high-speed pre-vacuum sterilizers provide virtually immediate steam penetration for porous goods. Gravity displacement autoclaves sterilize nonporous items, water, regulated healthcare waste, lab media, and pharmaceutical goods with direct-contact steam. To successfully sterilize wrapped medical supplies, you must maintain temperatures of 270º F in high-speed pre-vacuum sterilizers for 4 minutes and 250º F in gravity displacement autoclaves for 30 minutes.

Comply With Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) establishes and enforces what are called the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. These guidelines set the acceptable standards for:
- Procuring high-quality materials
- Utilizing properly designed systems
- Instituting robust operational procedures
- Developing quality management systems
- Monitoring equipment and its performance
- Identifying and evaluating any deviations in product quality or consistency
- Maintaining the state of your manufacturing and laboratory facilities for quality products and dependable testing results
By having these standardized CGMP regulations in place and adhering to them, your medical or pharma operation can better assure and manage product purity, overall quality, strength, and proper ingredients. CGMPs will help you avoid not only contamination but also manufacturing deviations or mix-ups that would negatively impact your pharmaceuticals and ability to produce a consistent product.

Proactively and Regularly Assess Steam System Performance

The following factors affect the purity levels of steam, which then impacts the quality, safety, and efficacy of finished goods:
- Sterilization system design
- Materials for construction
- Quality of feedwater
- Production practices
- Maintenance procedures
Like with any equipment, it’s important to be proactive about steam system inspections, maintenance, and repairs to ensure continued and optimal performance. Reviewing your equipment periodically lessens the chance that you’ll be caught by surprise and experience downtime in your steam system operation. This also helps guarantee that your system will continue to generate compliant, contaminant-free pure steam suitable for medical and pharmaceutical applications.

Contact Electro-Steam for Clean Steam Sterilization Solutions

Established in 1952, Electro-Steam Generator Corp. is a leading OEM manufacturer of electric steam generators. In fact, we make the most reliable miniature electric steam generator available on the market today. As part of our extensive American-made offerings, our team produces high-quality stainless steel generators in various configurations and sizes to reliably supply medical and pharmaceutical sterilizer equipment like autoclaves with clean steam.

We also offer exceptional service and technical support. Electro-Steam’s expert team is able to diagnose 95% of equipment issues over the phone as you stand in front of it in your facility, even if you lack a mechanical background. A five-year warranty comes standard on our units, with one-year coverage on components. We handle all parts and warranty inquiries quickly and accurately — often with same-day shipments.

Contact us today to learn more about the steam sterilization process and how a steam generator from Electro-Steam can support quality and efficiency in your operations.
Importance of Cleaning Food Conveyor Belts
April 26, 2024 4:07 am Leave a Comment
Industries that process or manufacture consumable goods must maintain high standards of cleanliness, especially within the food industry. Like other food processing and transportation equipment, food conveyor belts require regular cleaning to ensure sanitation and safety. Commercial dry steam cleaning systems offer a fast and chemical-free cleaning solution for food conveyor belts. Learn more about the importance of cleaning food conveyor belts and why steam cleaning is the best option.

Why Clean and Maintain Your Food Conveyor Belts

Regular conveyor belt cleaning is crucial in keeping your conveyor belts in good condition while preventing contamination and ensuring a safe environment for food production.

During food processing and manufacturing applications, conveyor belts collect dirt, oils, and other food grime on the return strand. To prevent the accumulation of contaminants and inhibit bacterial growth, all belts must be thoroughly cleaned after the discharge point.

One way to effectively clean food conveyor belts is through the use of dry steam. Steam’s popularity for cleaning food processing equipment results from its ability to quickly sanitize components without chemicals or disassembly, among many other benefits.

Why Steam Is the Best Choice for Cleaning Food Conveyor Belts

Steam cleaning systems are highly versatile and efficient. They are capable of deeply sanitizing conveyor belt components without harsh chemicals, making them highly safe for use in food processing applications.

According to recent tests in specialized laboratory environments, steam has been proven to kill up to 99.99% of germs without additional cleaning agents. This can help food processing facilities meet HACCP and other strict standards while avoiding the use of detergents or other chemicals.

Not only do dry steam cleaning systems remove visible dirt, but they can also remove substances like grease that can be difficult to spot on conveyor belts. This ensures your production line remains consistently clean and free of contaminants.

Benefits of Steam Cleaning Food Conveyor Belts

Using steam cleaning systems to clean food conveyor belts offers numerous advantages over conventional cleaning methods. These benefits include:
- Safety: Steam cleaners clean with dry steam, resulting in very little moisture production. They work by spraying hot-dry steam at high temperatures and pressures onto equipment to quickly clean and sanitize it. During the cleaning process, steam cleaners completely remove contaminated steam and water while ensuring the conveyor belt remains consistently dry. This makes it safe for cleaning different types of conveyor belts, including modular belts, smooth belts, mesh belts, and more.
- Environmental Friendliness: Dry steam cleaners don’t require the use of harsh chemicals, preventing any toxic contamination during food production. Additionally, these machines only use very minimal water to completely clean conveyor belts, making them more eco-friendly than other less efficient cleaning methods. Another factor that contributes to these machines’ environmental friendliness is the sole use of electricity to run, eliminating the need for other fuel sources.
Contact Us for Steam Generators or Food Conveyor Belt Cleaning

Steam cleaning offers numerous benefits over less sanitary and less efficient cleaning processes for food conveyor belts. If you’re in need of the right solution for your application, look no further than Electro-Steam. Our full line of equipment provides solutions that work well in all types of food and beverage processing environments to keep conveyors and other equipment consistently clean and free of contaminants.

Our reliable electric steam generators facilitate efficient steam cleaning processes to help you effectively remove debris and germs from conveyor belts. For more information about our food conveyor belt cleaning systems, contact us or schedule a free demo today.
How to Sanitize Wine Cellars with Steam Generators
April 24, 2024 5:47 am Leave a Comment
Proper wine fermentation, aging, and bottling depend on a clean and sanitary manufacturing environment. Winery sanitation systems ensure your wine cellar and equipment meet proper sanitization standards to produce high-quality wine. The most effective winery cleaners use high-temperature, high-pressure steam to clean and disinfect every corner of the wine cellar so that the next batch is high-quality and free from contamination. Here, we explain the steps of using steam to sterilize your wine cellar and explore why steam cleaning is ideal for wine cellar maintenance.

Steps for Sterilizing Wine Cellars With Steam

Wine cellar sanitization has unique requirements. The following steps will ensure a clean, sterile wine cellar using steam cleaning.

1. Initial Cleaning

Start the cleaning process by removing visible coarse debris and wine remnants from the surfaces of the cellar. Microorganisms, invisible to the human eye, can collect on winemaking equipment and spoil batches of wine during the winemaking process. Winemakers usually wash equipment using a soaking process, followed by gentle agitation to remove debris before sanitation.

2. Steam Sanitization

Steam at high temperatures and pressures is ideal for sanitizing wine cellars. It eliminates mold, yeast, and bacteria in the wine cellar without using chemical agents. Winemakers can safely apply steam to every surface in the wine cellar, including bottling lines and equipment, steel wine tanks, and wood barrels.

3. Monitor for Yeast and Bacteria

Then, monitor the wine cellar and equipment for the presence of any remaining mold, bacteria, and yeast. Use testing methods tailored to your specific needs to prevent contamination issues in the winemaking process.

4. Aerate the Cellar

After sanitizing the wine cellar, ventilate it to lower the humidity in the space. Proper ventilation controls temperatures in the cellar and sets the conditions for perfectly aged wine.

5. Maintaining the Cellar

Routine cleaning and sanitization of the wine cellar is critical in preventing unwanted microbial growth. Equipment and surfaces require frequent cleaning and maintenance to produce high-quality wine.

Why Use Steam for Wine Cellar Sterilization

Steam cleaning is one of the most environmentally friendly methods for sanitizing wine cellars, bottles, and equipment. Its efficacy and minimal environmental impact compared to conventional chemical cleaners and ozone treatments demonstrate why winemakers choose steam. Using high-temperature, high-pressure steam with very little water, steam sterilization is particularly effective at eliminating hidden microorganisms, mold, yeast, and bacteria lurking in hard-to-reach crevices and surfaces.

Contact Electro-Steam for Winery-Specific Steam Sanitation Equipment

Steam plays an important role in wine cellar maintenance and sterilization. After the initial removal of debris and wine remnants, steam cleaning eliminates yeast, mold, and bacteria, providing a sanitary surface in the wine cellar and on equipment for the next batch of wine. It is an environmentally friendly, safe method of cleaning that offers the same or better sanitization performance as conventional techniques.

Electro-Steam carries a line of winery cleaners and sanitation systems. Each one of our steam generators comes with the following features and benefits:
- Stainless steel cabinet with electrical panel
- 5-year warranty on chambers, 1-year warranty on other components
- 98% efficiency without feedwater preheating
- ASME, UL, cUL, CE, or CRN compliance
- 2-4 week production
Contact us to speak with a specialist about our wine cellar maintenance solutions, or schedule a free demo to see how our steam sterilization equipment can benefit your winery.
Steam vs. Ozone Cleaning for Winemaking
April 10, 2024 6:07 am Leave a Comment

Steam and ozone are common winery sanitization methods that winemakers use to keep cellars and equipment clean. Learn what to look for in an effective sanitation system, the unique features of steam vs. ozone cleaning, and why one might be better than the other.

What to Look for in Winery Sanitation

Wineries and their cellars are often vulnerable to harmful bacteria that can spoil or otherwise negatively affect wine products, which is why these facilities require proper sanitation. Effective sanitation is continuous and covers all processes and equipment, preventing spoilage organisms from spreading throughout the facility and contaminating future wine batches.

The right cleaning method will account for these organisms’ location of origin and travel paths, such as the barrel and the bottling line. Generally, the following elements are what you should seek in a winemaking sanitization system:
- The ability to effectively eliminate many types of spoilage organisms and microbes
- Ease of use to thoroughly sanitize various environments, systems, and processes
- Eco-friendliness
- Safe operation
- Energy efficiency
- Zero negative impact on products, workers, and facilities
Using Ozone in Winemaking

The main benefit and potential disadvantage of ozone is its lack of persistence since it is both unstable and reactive. Unlike other cleaning elements, any ozone not immediately consumed by organic oxidation will simply turn to oxygen. As a result, ozonated water doesn’t need a specialized disposal method, won’t contaminate ponds, and won’t kill beneficial organisms in biomass or septic systems.

While ozone barrel cleaning can be an effective sanitation process, ozone comes with certain disadvantages that may make it unsuitable for winemaking facilities. One downside of using ozone for winery cleaning is its potential safety hazard. Workers who come into contact with isolated ozone may experience symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems. Another disadvantage of using ozone for wineries is its brief half-life, as ozone quickly outgases from its water solution while in the wine barrel.

Why Steam Is Superior for Winemaking

If you want a reliable and safe method for cleaning barrels and other winery equipment, steam is one of the best solutions available. Steam efficiently eliminates the majority of harmful microorganisms by using high temperatures.

Specifically, winery steam cleaner systems use temperatures exceeding 212 °F (100 °C) for five to 10 minutes to deactivate all yeast, bacteria, and fungi in tanks, barrels, and bottling lines. Using dry steam, you can also get rid of spoilage microorganisms highly resistant to SO2, low pH, and high alcohol.

Steam sterilization reaches even the tightest spaces in wine barrels and lines, including narrow openings such as nozzles that would be difficult to reach with ozone cleaning and other methods. Dry steam is particularly beneficial for wood barrels because of its ability to penetrate up to ½” into the wood’s porous surface and kill hidden microorganisms.

Another benefit of dry steam is that it only requires half a gallon of water to clean each barrel, which translates to reduced filling times and reduced expenses. Ultimately, the dry steam cleaning technique offers the most efficient and dependable way to sanitize winemaking equipment, with the added ability to rehydrate wood barrels for wineries, distilleries, and breweries.

Contact Electro-Steam for Steam Generators

If you’re looking for a high-quality winery steam cleaner for your winery, distillery, or brewery, we’ll provide you with the right solution to meet your unique needs. Since 1952, Electro-Steam has grown into a leading provider of safe and reliable industrial steam generators and food safety sanitation systems.

Want to learn more about how barrel steam sterilizers can benefit your winemaking facility or processes? You can contact us today to speak with one of our experts and find the ideal cleaner for your application.
How Do Indirect Steam to Clean Steam Generators Work?
April 3, 2024 4:53 am Leave a Comment
An indirect clean steam generator is a type of high-pressure steam generator that is used to generate clean steam from an existing source of non-clean steam already present in a facility. Clean steam is commonly used in industries where sanitization and product purity and quality are paramount, such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, cosmetics, and biotechnology.

Here we will look at how indirect clean steam generators work, their benefits, and some common applications and use cases for clean steam.

Steam to Clean Steam Generators Explained

Clean steam is created in a specialized generator called an indirect clean steam generator. These generators are made of stainless steel and carefully welded for a complete seal and no leaks. They must be operated with a dedicated supply of purified water, which is often collected via reverse osmosis or deionization processes. To be considered clean, these systems may not use a standard boiler or the facility’s regular feed water supply.

The purified water is heated to boiling inside the indirect generator, with heat diverted from any other standard high-pressure steam generator or boiler system, and then piped to the indirect generator. It’s even possible to integrate an existing steam generator into a clean steam system to recapture excess heat generated during other processes. Neither the two water sources nor the two steams may mix, and only the heat is transferred.

The resulting steam created from purified water is free of additives and impurities that could contaminate, alter, or damage products or equipment. Clean steam generation is often used in conjunction with clean-in-place (CIP) and sanitize-in-place (SIP) processes.

Benefits of Clean Steam Generators

Clean steam generators offer several benefits including:
- Decreased Energy Consumption. Clean steam generators recapture heat energy from existing high-pressure steam sources in your facility, so they significantly reduce energy consumption.
- Reduced Corrosion Potential. Standard steam generation systems may be treated with corrosion-inhibiting additives; however, clean steam systems are made from stainless steel, which is naturally corrosion-resistant. This eliminates the need for additives.
- Prevention of Microbial Growth. Clean steam generation maintains temperatures that prevent microbial growth. They are also designed to eliminate standing or condensed water collection throughout the system, which keeps microbes and endotoxins out of the steam.
- Less Risk of Product Contamination. Clean steam generators use no boiler additives, particulates, or volatile substances that may contaminate or alter products.
- Popular Choice for Food Production. Already common in pharmaceutical production facilities, clean steam systems are also used in food and beverage production facilities to minimize potential contamination from standard steam generation methods.
What are the Applications for Clean Steam Generators?

Clean steam is used in these and other applications:
- High-purity product manufacturing such as cosmetics or plant extracts
- SIP systems for cleaning equipment following CIP processes in pharmaceutical facilities
- Situations in which pure steam is not specified, such as non-injectable sterile pharmaceutical products or biopharmaceuticals regulated by the FDA
- Removing oils, fats, or protein and flavoring residues from food processing equipment
- Sterilizing equipment and instruments in hospitals
Choose a Steam Generator From Electro-Steam

Electro-Steam is a steam generator OEM focused on innovative electric-fired steam generators and boilers. Our high-quality generators and products are manufactured in the US with safety and longevity in mind. Each unit has a 98% efficiency rate and is easy to operate and maintain.

Contact us to speak with a specialist about our indirect clean steam generators or to learn more about our capabilities.