| Energy
Proper job for slurry
and renewables at
Kemble Farms
“We’re always happy to see the Landia van turn up when it is time for our pumps and mixers to be
serviced”, says Miles Bishop, AD Manager at Kemble Farms, near Cirencester.
W
e know it’s going to be a
‘proper job’. We work well
together. A company with a
can-do approach and a
genuine interest in how their
equipment is working, is always
welcome here”.
In a young industry that has often tested
business relationships to the limit, this bon
accord between customer and supplier – who
have been on good terms since day one – is
something of a coll ector’s item.
For some, the complexities of getting one’s
AD plant up and running has arguably
generated more questions and unforeseen
costs than actual renewable energy – and
during the past decade, many weighty
expectations, together with consultants and
suppliers have come and gone. Performance is
important of course, but the benefit of
equipment longevity, reliability and supplier
back-up increasingly shines through over time.
Trust is vital. Biogas plants can need plenty of
hand-holding – which isn’t helped of course if
40 | Farming Monthly | July 2018
there are warring parties.
Almost a decade before Kemble took the
bold decision to establish its own AD plant, four
Landia chopper pumps and mixers had created
a solid track record handling cattle slurry at the
1450 hectare farm, which today has a dairy
herd close to 1,000. Invented in 1950 as a
slurry pump with a knife system that prevents
solids from entering the pump’s casing, the
launch of the chopper pump was a landmark in
pumping technology because here was a piece
of engineering that could cut the straw often
found in liquid animal manure, which would
typically cause blockages in less sturdy pumps.
More Landia pumps and mixers, typically
18.5kW and 5.5kW have been purchased since,
with the most recent addition replacing a mixer
from a different manufacturer (in one of Kemble
Farm’s reception tanks) that was constantly
tripping out, as Miles Bishop explains.
“Foreign objects were forever wrapping
themselves around the propeller, causing the
unprotected mechanical seal to fail”, he said.
“We had to keep winching the mixer out,
also finding it contaminated internally with
slurry where the power supply went in – but as
much as we tried to clean it, flush it and armour
it, we were fighting a losing battle. It then cost
us when out for repair by having to use
cumbersome and time-consuming work-
arounds – but in the end, enough was enough.
I think this is the problem with off-the-shelf. It
was over-specified on power and under-
specified on duty, but it was probably
considered by the supplier to be the nearest
one they had to the application. But, it would
never seal properly and worse still, the
manufacturer wasn’t interested. They were a
struggle to work with, whereas now, we have a
decent, strong Landia pump, specified
specially for the job, plus help and friendly,
practical advice whenever we need it”.
‘Serious Hours’
When Miles took on Kemble Farms’ AD Plant
five years ago, he was also faced with the
challenge of optimising the AD process, in
which at the middle of the site sits a large
digestate liquor store (an intermediate tank)
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