PRODUCTION OF CARBONATED SOFT DRINK – IN LAYMAN’S LANGUAGE

Posted by Olutaller Akinwole

On May 4, 2020

I will start by highlighting the contents of a typical bottle and the percentage occupied by each one of them.
1. Water 85%
2. Sugar + Flavours and preservatives 9 – 13%
3. Carbon Dioxide 2 – 5%

Water

Obviously, we are dealing with a large quantity of water, and as such we must be very careful about the quality of the water, we use for our products. Water sources include rivers, boreholes, municipal water, lakes, and rain water. Incidentally one of our plants uses all the sources in different quantities. But whatever the source, the QC lab must determine the quality of the water in terms of chemical contents, physical contents and the content of harmful germs that may harm the human body. Once this is determined, the method of treating the water to clean potable water can then be selected. But regardless of the quality of the raw water, the water must pass through the water treatment plant for proper removal of unwanted chemicals, unwanted suspended or dissolved solids and unwanted germs. In the water treatment plant, the raw water passes into a large open tank called the reaction tank in which the necessary chemicals are added to perform the treatment process. A chemical called lime is added to help adjust the chemical contents of the water to a level suitable for our concentrates and preservatives. Also, a chemical called chlorine, which is the main component of some household bleach, is added to remove any germs that may be in the water. These chemicals when added would leave residues that cannot be allowed to enter the final product. As such, they must be removed and the removal is done in two enclosed tanks called sand filter and carbon filter lined up in series. The sand filter contains beach sand laid on gravels. The sand helps to remove all suspended solids and chemicals that would flow with the water from the reaction tank. The sand filter, however, cannot remove excess chlorine used to kill germs. This is done by the carbon filter, which is similar to the sand filter in shape and construction but contains, in addition to the sand and gravel, a large quantity of activated carbon. Activated carbon is a special type of charcoal that has the ability to hold particles of the chlorine on its surface. Both the sand and carbon filters are cleaned daily by reversing the flow of the water and allowed to go to drain until all dirt are removed. After the activated carbon, the ‘pure water’ is then passed through a small stainless-steel chamber (water polisher) which contains special water candles that can remove the tiniest dirt known to man, resulting in a polished and treated water. The water is then passed through a sealed chamber called the ultraviolet light chamber in which all disease-causing germs are further destroyed. Then the water is passed directly to the syrup, bottling lines and utility sections.

Carbon Dioxide

This gas is used to give soft drinks its unique quality. Each product has different content of the gas with Orange having the lowest and Soda water having the highest. Carbon dioxide is mostly obtained from the firing of diesel or LNG (cooking gas). The raw material is fired in a boiler to generate carbon dioxide (CO2) and other gases. The combined gases are passed through different stages of purification and separation until pure CO2 (Liquid CO2) is obtained. The CO2 is then stored and later heated up when it is needed. The process is actually very complicated and requires great expertise and care to obtain the pure CO2, and an impure CO2 can result to a bad soft drink, bad product taste and bad product odour. CO2 has the following functions in a soft drink;
• Preservative.
• Flavour enhancer
• Taste bud excitement.

Sugar (Syrup)

The sugar used in bottling soft drink is granulated type. This is purchased from refineries and stored in a warehouse within the factory. The sugar is weighed accurately according to specifications laid down by the owners of the business. The weighed sugar is poured into a specified quantity of treated water in a stainless-steel tank called sugar dissolving tank. The two are mixed together, heated to certain high temperature hot enough to kill all germs then passed through special filters to get what is called simple syrup. The simple syrup is pumped into another stainless-steel tank called Finished Syrup tank. In this tank, the simple syrup is converted to finished syrup by adding flavours, colours, acidulants, extracts and special mixtures that make each product unique. The finished syrup is very concentrated, about 4 or 5 times sweeter that the soft drink itself (similar to what we have in Tree Top or Ribena). The finished syrup is then passed to the bottling line for further processing to carbonated soft drink. (Some new products are being fortified with sweeteners to reduce the content of sugar in the product. These are usually the diet drinks.)

Bottling (Glass Returnable Bottles)

The process of bottling is summarized below. The best way to understand this is to actually see it happening. No one can explain the process very well if you do not see it happen. I would advise that you take about 30 minutes off on any day and visit the production line in your location and observe how each bottle travels from being very dirty to being very clean to being filled up to being crowned to being coded and to become cased and palletized. However, I will try to take each process and explain what goes on.
Depalletizing: Here, the palletized cases are removed from pallets and passed to a conveyor to the uncaser machine.
Uncasing: Here, the machine called uncaser separates the cases from the bottles (un-cases).
Bottle washing: This is done by the biggest machine (As big as a two-bedroom flat) in the factory.
This machine is called bottle washer. The machine uses caustic soda (highly corrosive chemical used for making soap) and heat to wash each and every bottle, and then rinse off the caustic with potable water.
Inspection: The clean bottles are then passed through manual inspectors to remove chipped bottles and foreign bottles. They then passed through an Electronic Bottle Inspector (EBI) which removes also chipped bottles, no-so-clean bottles and bottles with residual rinse water.
Filling and Crowning: The bottles then pass into the filler which fills in ice cold carbonated soft drinks (pre-mixed, chilled and carbonated in a tank called Carbo-Cooler) and then crowns each bottle through an attached machine called Crowner.
Coding: Here, each bottle is stamped with special codes to assist in identifying date of manufacture and date of expiry.
Inspection: Because the filler might not be 100% efficient to produce wholesome bottles, manual inspectors are used to check each bottle for defects. The defects include under-filled, over-filled, uncovered, broken neck and poorly covered products. Note: Substandard soft drinks are never recycled.
Casing: Here, each bottle is packed into cases.
Palletising: This is the process of putting the cases in a pallet. This can be done manually using strong labourers, or mechanically with the help of a specialized machine. Both the machine and the labourers are called palletizers.

Bottling (Plastic Bottles)

Bottle Blowing: The process begins with the blowing of plastic preforms into bottles at very high temperature. The blowing is done with both heat and powerful air pressure.
Filling and Capping: The bottles then pass into the filler which fills in ice cold carbonated soft drinks (pre-mixed, chilled and carbonated in a tank called Carbo-Cooler) and then caps each bottle through an attached machine called Capper.
Filled Bottle Inspection: Because the filler might not be 100% efficient to produce wholesome bottles, special machine is used to check the level of filling, where it is low, such bottles are instantly rejected and destroyed. Note: Substandard soft drinks are never recycled.
Labelling: Each bottle is wrapped with the label to enable the identification of the product type. The label contains all the information about the content of the bottle.
Coding: Here, each bottle is stamped with special codes to assist in identifying date of manufacture and date of expiry.
Shrink Wrapping: The bottles are arranged neatly in sets of 12 by a machine called Shrink Wrapper which wraps nylons around each set.
Palletising: This is the process of putting the cases in a pallet. This can be done manually using strong labourers, or mechanically with the help of a specialized machine. Both the machine and the labourers are called palletizers.

PROCESS FLOW SHEET

RETURNABLE GLASS BOTTLE PLASTIC BOTTLE
DEPALLETISING BOTTLE BLOWING
BOTTLE UNCASING FILLING AND CAPPING
MECHANICAL BOTTLE WASHING FILLED BOTTLE INSPECTION (ELECTRONIC)
EMPTY BOTTLE INSPECTION (MANUAL) LABELLING
EMPTY BOTTLE INSPECTION (ELECTRONIC) CODING
FILLING AND CROWNING SHRINK WRAPPING
CODING PALLETISING
FILLED BOTTLE INSPECTION (MANUAL)  
CASING  
PALLETISING  

In conclusion, the process of bottling can be best understood by actually witnessing it. Just take some time off, walk into the QC department and ask for a guided tour, you will be surprised to discover that you are drinking a carefully prepared product.

Remain refreshed.
Nurudeen Abayomi Abiru

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