| Energy
made
of concrete. It’s
long, narrow and rectangular –
a significant challenge for good mixing!
“This Landia DG chopper pump (with a long
shaft nozzle) clocks up some serious hours
working this liquor store”, he added.
“The tank shape is probably the worst
imaginable. It contains the hot (42 degrees C),
post-digestion liquor from our AD process,
which is then pumped up to our 3000m3
towers, so it is quite a push. It’s a relatively low
dry matter (2%) but it is still very intensive due
to the restrictions we’re having to work with
because of the shape of the tank. It handles 70
tonnes per day. Not many suppliers would be
interested in taking on this very arduous 24/7
installation for their pumps”.
Approximately 70% of Kemble Farms’ slurry
(60 tons per day) is currently used for the
(1400m3 digester) AD process, so there is
capacity to increase the 300kW electrical plant.
At present though, adding more slurry would
then see the six tonnes per day of the farm’s
maize coming out of the process insufficiently
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk
digested.
Two thirds of the
renewable energy generated is
exported to the National Grid, whilst the
substantial energy costs of running a 19-hour
milk parlour are now covered.
“Going into AD was a good fit for us”,
continued Miles.
‘Very good quality digestate’
“We knew that we could use the slurry as a
resource. Subsidies were quite generous at the
time and a dairy is expensive to run. We’ve
now created a nearly closed-loop system that
makes perfect sense – growing maize and
grass to feed the cows, who provide the milk
that we sell to a supermarket chain. The
welfare of our cows has improved, so we have
a better increment on milk sales. We feed the
cow’s slurry into the digester to create our
green renewable energy – and – we also get a
very
good quality
digestate for use as a
fertiliser. This has very much offset the
cost of buying chemical fertiliser by a
substantial amount – and has significantly
improved the quality of the farm’s soil. The
digestate is an excellent product in itself – very
fine – easy to spread. Running an AD plant can
be a labour of love, but it’s worth it – and this all
the more reason to work with a company such
as Landia whose quality of service is as every
bit as good as their equipment”.
Contact Landia on 01948 661 200 or visit
www.landia.co.uk
July 2018 | Farming Monthly | 41