Landia chopper pumps provide effluent solution twice over

Effluent from food production is often a persistent headache for manufacturers and suppliers attempting to balance the commercial demands of output with the environmental requirements of government and regulatory bodies.

It’s a scenario with which Landia is not only familiar but has devoted much of its business activities to solving.

This proved useful for contractors working with one of the UK’s leading potato suppliers and a chicken processing plant based in Scotland.

Chesterfield-based MSE Systems was handling a contract for the potator producer explains design manager Andy Neal:

“Our challenge was to help our customer meet and maintain a stringent Environment Agency discharge consent, so that they remain fully compliant.”

During an upgrade to the customer’s potato processing factory, MSE Systems found that the addition of a high-efficiency Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) plant would improve the activated sludge process by reducing oxygen demand.

The solution proved to be installation of Landia Chopper Pumps and a Landia Aeration System: To ensure that the plant could meet future needs, a new chemical addition system was introduced to remove suspended solids, free emulsified oils, grease and elevated residual phosphorus.

For odour control, they approached the pumps company for an 11kW Landia AirJet system was installed to mix, aerate and control odours of screened potato effluent in a balance tank. In addition, two submersible Landia Chopper Pumps were brought in to pump screened potato effluent from a 4.5m deep pit (500m away), which included an additional 4m lift.

Meanwhile Ferrier Pumps trurned to Landia to enable the firm to solve a wastewater application at a new chicken processing plant in Scotland.

With washdown water containing feathers, faeces and sawdust, achieving the required flow rate was critical, as was the selection of a pump that could cope with the difficult solids.

As part of its design, which included two screens, pipework, control panels and flowmeter, Ferrier Pumps (established 1981), ot brought in a submersible Chopper Pump from Landia, explained  sales engineer Peter Ramsay:

“Critically, we knew that if the minimum self-cleansing velocity could not be not maintained for this packaged pumping station, then the solids in the pumped product would settle out causing blockages.”

Operating at 1500 RPM, the submersible Landia Chopper Pump installed by Ferrier Pumps is designed with its classic external knife system that relentlessly chops solids before they get inside the pump’s casing – continuously reducing particle sizes for the benefit of the process. 

Added Ramsay : “We’d also seen from previous experience that the Landia Chopper Pump is extremely effective and reliable – even when having to deal with very hard-to-handle solids such as feathers. We’ve had no issues at all. It really is the best pump for these challenging applications.” 

For MSE’s Neal, the reliability of Landia’s AirJet and Chopper have given his firm the confidence to invest further in this equipment as the best, long-term solution for its potato supplier client.

MSE Systems is now set to install a further three units from Landia for the company; two submersible Landia Chopper Pumps will pump potato effluent  for a new packing line, whilst a Landia Jet Mix system will mix organic sludge (dissolved solids 3-5%) in a 60m³ tank, he explained.