According to Landia, who will be at UK AD & Biogas on July 2 & 3, (Stand B001), the increasing amount of improperly shredded food waste and inevitable contaminants in domestic green bin waste mean that only the very toughest pumping and mixing equipment – designed for purpose – can meet the industry’s demands.
“Mass-produced, bog-standard propeller mixers don’t last very long at all in AD environments”, says Landia’s Paul Davies. “We now see some operators just running their pumps into the ground because it’s actually cheaper to replace them completely than get at them to carry out maintenance. This can be the case for any type of mixing system that doesn’t allow you to carry out a service from outside the tank. Externally-mounted units have huge operational and safety benefits. Everything is at ground level, so there’s no working at heights. Nothing is in the gas-zoned area, so there’s no need for breathing apparatus. To maintain equipment such as submersible mixers, there’s no option other than to climb up, peel back the lid of the digester and purge the tank, which is extremely costly and time-consuming”.
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He added: “Small submersible mixers will often be running flat out, lasting two years or much less – compared to a chopper pump that can last 25 years. You’d think energy savings would be at least part of most AD operators’ decision making, but that’s not always so. Three 30kW pumps doesn’t automatically mean 90kW hours because they might only need to run for a maximum of fifteen minutes per hour”.
Davies also points to the rising amount of acidic food waste being used as feedstock that corrodes cast iron equipment – and food waste that contains plastics from packaging that can also cause problems without the right processing or sufficiently strong pumps and mixers to handle it.
“Over-shredding of plastics will make particles too small to be screened out”, he says, “But under-shredding can create a floating mattress of plastic in the digester, which will see gas production reduce and then eventually have to stop so that someone has to go in manually and remove it all. AD downtime isn’t something you want. Lost revenue can amount to thousands of pounds per day – and a problem with fulfilling your contract to the energy provider”.
Founder ADBA members Landia will be promoting their externally-mounted GasMIx system during UK AD & Biogas at the NEC (July 2 & 3). GasMix is already in use at Cory’s first AD plant.
www.landia.co.uk
info@landia.co.uk
01948 661 200
Landia Ltd
- 0194 8661 200
- info@landia.co.uk
- http://www.landia.co.uk
- Waymills Industrial Estate, Whitchurch, Shropshire, SY13 1TT GB
About us
Landia's headquarters are located in Lem, which is how it has been since 1933. Today, Landia has subsidiaries in England, Germany, Norway and the US, and a sales office in China. In addition, Landia products are sold in 45 countries worldwide. Landia supplies pumping and mixing solutions to many different industries, with the most important ones being agriculture, wastewater, biogas plants and the fish industry. In general, you will find Landia's products wherever there is a difficult medium to be pumped or mixed. Landia survives by selling quality solutions in close partnership with the customers.
Landia is not a supermarket where customers select products from the shelves. Our technical sales people are always in close discussions with customers, which ensures solutions that work. For Landia, quality in every phase a matter of course, and we have been ISO9001 certified since 1994. Quality also means that many of Landia's products have been in operation for 20-25 years even though the operating conditions may be extreme. In that way, Landia's customers achieve the lowest lifespan costs, while resource consumption is minimised, which further results in a positive impact on the environment.
Where we supply to
Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, North America
Industries we supply to
Chemicals
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Landia GasMix operating in tank
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LANDIA's EradiGator - Heavy Duty Chopper Pump Mixes & Chops To Clean Your Wet Well
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POPL Tarm WWTP
