EDITORS CHOICE
courses. This has resulted in the development of Ekogea, whose BioComplex product maximises biogas outputs and improves commercial viability, as well as reducing waste digestate by up to 80% by volume. It also treats wastewater to Environment Agency permitted discharge standards. The product range helps with sustainable and profitable slurry management, provides natural fertiliser for crops and soil regeneration, and improves the health and profitability of livestock.
you switch straight on. It takes time to come back to full production, so time is money. To keep our system running at its optimum levels, we’re always absolutely on it. We take regular samples, and over the years have learned what good biology is, so that we know what to do and what not to do.”
For its 90m3 reception tank, Hendwr invested in a chopper pump and a mixer from Landia to blend the incoming feedstock into a very homogenous mix.
“The only problem we had,” continued Phil, “is that after six years of continuous use, we eventually killed the pump! It was cast iron and was basically being asked to do something that it wasn’t designed for. The low pH, running at 3.8, had over time, made everything corrode. We very much wanted to stay with Landia, but to upgrade to stainless steel, this meant a short wait, so they kindly helped us out with a temporary replacement so that we could keep producing gas. The Landia Chopper pump is very effective and reliable, continuously reducing particle sizes, ready for the liquid to go through into our milling and micronising lines.”
During lockdown when some of us put on far too much weight and drank far too much, Hendwr far more wisely relieved the boredom by learning how to dewater digestate and slurry to get not only a dry, stackable solid, but a polished water that’s dischargeable into water
Phil Hughes continued: “We’ve found a way of concentrating solids so that we can now dewater very efficiently. As hill farmers, it allows us to take that digestate as valuable fertiliser safely up onto the banks, whereas slurry tankers would be dangerous with all that weight sloshing around. It’s a big advantage because we can deliver nutrients much further through the farm, which has increased our productivity. When spreading onto our land, it’s going into the plant, instead of going up into the air, which is why we're growing so much more grass on the farm, because the nitrogen isn’t being been lost to the atmosphere.
“We’re actually reducing the volumes of liquids and slurries we’re dealing with by a factor of almost 10, reusing the water to wet the dry chicken litter at the front end of our system for a much cheaper, more efficient process. When trying to dewater, covering our lagoon (5m deep), was one of the best things I ever did. We have no shortage of rain in North Wales! Dewatering offers numerous options because it is so much easier to transport. It is a very exciting piece of technology, which in addition to farming, can be used at factory sites, even if they already have a DAF treatment process. We can collapse the COD, BOD and nitrogen levels that they get charged for by the water companies.
Good mixing remains crucial
He continued: “At the heart of our biogas process, good mixing and pumping for that all important homogenization remains crucial. When the Landia team turn up to carry out maintenance, they are armed with good client data. We could be made to feel that we’re just a small customer out of thousands, but they know our names, know exactly what they are doing and provide very attentive, enthusiastic service. They’re good lads. Hitting our performance target means having the right machines, the right service, and the right after-sales, which we’ve always had from Landia.”
G E T I N VO LV E D ! M A G A Z I N E
IN PRINT & ONLINE
draintraderltd.com
22 | February 2025 |
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