For the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and animal feed industries, thousands of transport containers for liquid, powdered or granulated products are used every day in Europe and then transported by road, rail, air, water or within production facilities.

A wide variety of products such as chemicals as hazardous goods, basic chemicals, fine chemicals, toxic and explosive substances, foodstuffs, feedstuffs and non-food products, such as raw materials, semi-finished goods and finished products as bulk goods, granulates or liquids are transported via Europe's roads, railways and waterways. In addition, mobile containers are used in production facilities, for example as mixing containers for batch production.

These goods are transported in various transport containers, such as tankers and silo trucks, ISO tank containers, tank wagons, IBCs and a wide variety of special containers. Packaged, partially packaged and unpackaged final food products are usually transported in temperature-controlled thermal, refrigerated or box trucks.

All transport containers must be cleaned regularly to meet a high standard of quality, and in some cases, especially for sensitive foodstuffs or animal feed, must be accurately disinfected after cleaning. Within the supply chain of all companies involved, the cleaning of transport containers is gaining more and more attention.

Cleaning is carried out by external service providers or in the production facilities after unloading or before loading.

Individual cleaning systems are required for cleaning the various transport containers. For example, due to legal requirements such as the Federal Emissions Protection Act (BImSchG), due to the different transport containers and product groups or specifications by the end customer.

Transport containers for foodstuffs require extensive cleaning. The cleaning and disinfection of these transport containers is particularly demanding, as cross-contamination with viruses, prions, molds, mycotoxins, allergens and other foreign substances must be reliably excluded.

Transport containers for feed must be cleaned and disinfected with similar effort as food transport containers. Here, too, cross-contamination with primary products and other foreign substances must be reliably excluded.

Transport containers for non-food must first and foremost be cleaned in such a way that there is no negative impact on the next load.

The manufacturers of corresponding hazardous goods not only place high demands on the quality of cleaning, but also on the operational and environmental safety of the cleaning systems. During the cleaning of dangerous goods transport containers, high risks can arise due to residual quantities that are still in the transport containers after unloading. It is therefore important to take these aspects and the associated requirements into account during the planning, design and construction of the systems. The focus here is on increasing occupational safety.
Special requirements from the legal approval procedures, such as the BImSchG (Federal Emissions Protection Act), the TA-Luft (Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control), the Indirect Discharger Ordinance for Wastewater and explosion protection must be observed and implemented.

LOEHRKE provides complex system solutions for each of these applications, from plant project planning, approval according to the Federal Emissions Protection Act BImSchG for hazardous materials, to turnkey plants that meet all legal European and international requirements. Our experts will advise you right from the planning stage.

With over 30 years of experience in projects for the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and animal feed industries and close cooperation with manufacturers of aggregates as well as with manufacturers of transport containers and cleaning agents, we are in a position to optimally design cleaning plants.

In addition, we are active in associations and in the preparation of EU guidelines in the field of cleaning systems. This commitment serves the continuous improvement and standardization of cleaning systems.