In-Tank Eductors for Pharma, Biotech & Food: Solving Stratification in Liquid Soap Manufacturing

The Problem

A well-known consumer goods company that makes liquid soap adds two different surfactants to their soap-making process. Initially, they were using a mechanical mixer in the tank, which forced them into a first-in, first-out policy rather than being able to draw fluid from every connection in the tank.

The Solution

Jacoby-Tarbox Hygienic In-Tank Eductors (also known as Tank Liquid Agitators, or TLAs) were recommended to move the surfactant around the tank and prevent stratification.

Why Stratification Was the Real Problem

Stratification happens when different components of a liquid mixture settle into distinct layers rather than staying evenly blended — heavier or denser material sinks, lighter material rises, and the fluid stops behaving as a uniform mixture. For this company's process, stratified layers in the tank were not good for product consistency.

With their original mechanical mixer, the practical consequence was a first-in, first-out operating constraint: rather than being able to draw finished product from any connection point on the tank, they had to manage draw order carefully to avoid pulling from a poorly mixed layer. That's a workaround for the underlying mixing problem, not a fix for it.

The Eductor Solution — and Why It Needed to Be Carefully Controlled

Switching to Jacoby-Tarbox Hygienic In-Tank Eductors solved the stratification issue by continuously moving the surfactant through the tank rather than leaving it to settle. But eductor-based mixing needed to be tuned carefully for this application — violent mixing wasn't desired any more than stratification was.

To manage this, our Eductor Application Engineer also recommended installing a VFD (variable frequency drive) on the recirculation pump. This allowed the flow rate to the eductor to be regulated precisely at different liquid level heights in the tank, giving the customer controlled, consistent mixing rather than a fixed flow rate that might be too aggressive at some fill levels and too weak at others.

Result: With the eductor system in place, the company could draw fluid from every connection in the tank, eliminating the first-in, first-out constraint the original mechanical mixer had forced on their process.

Hygienic Design Specifications

Because this is a consumer product manufacturing application, hygienic design was essential. The TLA used in this installation featured:

• Ferruled connections — a sanitary connection style that avoids the crevices and bacterial harborage points associated with threaded fittings

• Electropolished to 20Ra — a surface finish standard that removes microscopic imperfections from the metal surface, reducing places where residue or bacteria could accumulate and making the equipment easier to clean thoroughly

• Hygienic connections throughout — ensuring the entire wetted assembly met sanitary process standards, not just the eductor body itself

From Pilot to Global Expansion

After piloting the eductor system at a plant in the Southeast US, the organization is now expanding this approach to their facilities in Europe and Central America. That progression — a single pilot installation leading to multi-region rollout — reflects the kind of validation that matters most in manufacturing: the solution didn't just solve the problem on paper, it performed well enough in real production to justify replicating it across the company's global footprint.

Why This Approach Applies Broadly Across Pharma, Biotech & Food

While this specific case involved liquid soap manufacturing, the underlying challenge — preventing stratification in a hygienic tank environment while avoiding overly aggressive mixing — applies across a wide range of pharma, biotech, and food processing applications where:

• Product consistency depends on uniform blending

• Sanitary design standards must be met throughout the wetted assembly

• Mixing intensity needs to be tunable rather than fixed

• Facilities want the flexibility to draw product from any connection point rather than managing a first-in, first-out workaround

Applications

• Food & Beverage: Ingredient blending, preventing settling in storage and process tanks

• Pharmaceutical & Biotech: Sanitary mixing in bioreactors and formulation tanks

• Consumer Products: Surfactant and multi-component blending, as in this case study

• Any Hygienic Process: Requiring controlled, tunable in-tank mixing without mechanical agitator maintenance

Learn More

Reach out to our Eductor Applications Engineer, Clarence Dela Vega, at +1 (440) 846-7653 or cdelavega@clarkreliance.com to discuss whether a hygienic in-tank eductor could solve a similar stratification or mixing challenge at your facility.

Related Products & Resources:

• In-Tank Eductors (Tank Liquid Agitators)

• In-Line Eductors

• AccuBlend CFD

• Hygienic Products

• 3" Tank Liquid Agitators Going to a Chemical Plant in the Gulf Coast

• Size Your Own Eductor with the JT Eductor Sizing Tool

• Jacoby-Tarbox Case Studies