seepex open hopper pumps handle food waste at the InSource Energy plant

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seepex pumps form a vital part of a new anaerobic digestion plant in Wales. The plant has been designed and built by InSource Energy, who also operates the facility, converting food waste from the Premier Foods’ RF Brookes ready meal facility at Rogerstone into energy to power the factory.

The plant will provide significant savings in waste disposal and energy bills and reduce carbon emissions by around 8,500 tonnes per year. This is believed to be the first example in Wales of a factory being partially powered by its own waste in this way.

The food waste streams from the factory are potato waste, effluent treatment sludge and food waste, including packaged waste. The potato waste and effluent sludge are transferred to the plant in enclosed pipe runs of over 100 metres by seepex pumps. The unpacked waste was however causing biggest problems for the site as the de-packing equipment for solid waste could not squeeze out the organics when the food waste contained no packaging.

Engineering Director of InSource Energy:

Our pump supplier recommended an open hopper pump with Integral knives, a seepex BTM. The unpacked feed stream is now tipped into a hopper above the pump auger which pushes it through the knives, converting it into a slurry and allowing us to process all our feedstocks as efficiently as we originally managed.

The BTM is the latest addition to the seepex pumps at InSource Energy which are pumping slurries and also digestate in the biogas plant. Further size reduction is being achieved using a macerator installed after the pump. If needed the pump can also mix liquids into the solid waste to give the correct DS% for biogas production.

seepex BTM open hopper pumps have been used to chop and pump food waste in enclosed systems for many years. This expertise with foods as diverse as whole chickens and whole vegetables is being used for biogas feedstock handling to great effect.