A tunnel pasteurizer is a machine used in the food and beverage industry to pasteurize products such as juices, soft drinks, beer, and other liquid or semi-liquid products. It is designed to heat the product to a specific temperature and hold it at that temperature for a predetermined period of time to destroy harmful bacteria, yeast, and molds while minimizing the impact on the product’s quality.

The spray type pasteurization and cooling tunnel uses circulating warm water spray for preheating,  circulating hot water spray for pasteurization, warm water pre-cooling, cold water cooling four-stage treatment or multi-stage treatment, pasteurizing and cooling beverage to ambient temperature and sent to the next station for further processing. The whole process is fully automatic, pasteurization and cooling time can be designed according to user needs and frequency conversion speed.

It is applied to pasteurizing and cooling of various bottled and canned beverages, tea drinks, dairy products, canned fruits and vegetables juice/sauce, etc. It can also be used for the warming of carbonated drinks beverages.

The tunnel pasteurization process typically involves the following steps:

1. Preheating section: The containers(bottles, cans, or pouches) enter the tunnel and pass through a preheating area, where it is gradually heated to the desired pasteurization temperature by hot water spraying onto the surface of the containers. This helps to reduce the thermal shock to the product when it enters the pasteurization section.
2. Pasteurization section: In this section, the surface of the container is continued sprayed with hot water to keep the product’s temperature between 93-98 degrees Celsius (200-208 degrees Fahrenheit), for a specific period of time. The temperature and holding time depend on the product being pasteurized and the desired level of microbial reduction.
3. Cooling Section: After pasteurization, the product enters a cooling section through the belt conveyor, where it is rapidly cooled to room temperature by spraying warm water and cold water. This helps preserve the product’s quality and flavor while ensuring its safety.

1. It adopts high-temperature resistant polypropylene (HTPP) chain plate, adopts Japanese electrical components, and the body is made of stainless steel, stable and reliable operation, compact overall structure, and hygienic and beautiful appearance.
2. The high-quality plastic mesh belt chain plate can work at high temperature for a long time (>98℃), and the short-term high temperature is 104℃;
3. Solid cone wide-angle nozzle, uniform and stable water flow distribution, constant temperature field;
4. Comprehensive utilization of multiple energy and heat recovery technologies, energy-saving and environmental protection;
5. Temperature sensor PT100, high measurement accuracy, up to ±0.5℃;
6. Multi-process combination, reasonable process, can handle a variety of food materials;
7. The pasteurization temperature is controlled by PLC touch screen.
8. The total processing time is controlled by frequency conversion, which can be adjusted according to the production process;
9. Configure automatic feeding and discharging mechanisms for non-circular PP bottles, plastic bags, roof cartons, glass bottles, cans and other products, and the connection to the conveyor line is smooth.
10. It can provide users with heat distribution testing services, using an expert system to monitor temperature changes in the entire production process online.
11. With automatic control of sterilization temperature, the sterilization time is steplessly adjustable:
12. It can be widely used in the pasteurization and cooling of various bottled and canned acid juice drinks, electrolyte drinks, alcohol, condiments and other products;
13. This equipment can be designed according to the sterilization conditions and output requirements of users.
14. The spraying hot water and cooling water can be recycled for use, which is saved water, electricity and steam greatly.

This equipment is composed of a body machine, transmission chain part, spray device, heat exchanger, water recycling system, auxiliary equipment, and electrical control cabinet.

The Whole Body Machine

—The whole body is made of SUS304 material, which is formed by large-scale bending and argon arc welding. The thickness of the stainless steel plate is not less than 2mm, the surface is polished with sandblasting. The fuselage is precisely connected with the frame support beam bolts, which is tightly combined, high strength, and not easy to deform. It is including maintenance manhole, adjusting base, water tank, etc.

Transmission Chain Network

—The chain net is made of high-molecular polyethylene nylon chain net, which is quick to connect and easy to replace; it has excellent high-temperature resistance and does not deform; it has good self-lubricating effect, not easy to wear, and has long service life.

Spraying Nozzle

—The nozzle is made of 304 stainless steel and imported from America Spraying System, beautiful appearance, reasonable aperture; installed on the distribution pipe, the spray body angle is accurate and reasonable.

Water recycling system

—This water recycling system is composed of a water storage tank, a water pump and a pipeline to complete the supply of hot and cooling medium for the entire equipment; after supplying the distribution pipe, the cooling medium is sprayed from each nozzle to achieve the purpose of product cooling. Water-saving process pipeline design, the next-level water tank supplies the cooling medium to the upper-level water tank.

Heat exchanger system

—The tunnel pasteurizer is equipped with a heat exchanger system that uses hot water, steam, or a combination of both to heat the tunnel and maintain the desired temperature throughout the process. The temperature is carefully controlled and monitored to ensure consistent and effective pasteurization.

Auxiliary equipment

—The auxiliary equipment mainly includes a boiler, cooling tower and water chill unit. The boiler is generating steam to heat water to pasteurize the products, the cooling tower or water chiller is used for generating cool or chill water to cool the products at the cooling section.

The Electronic Control Cabinet

—The machine is equipped with an electric control cabinet, various operation buttons and automatic temperature control system devices. It is equipped with a manual control system, which can switch between manual and automatic, which is convenient for operation.