Dairy in Ireland improves waste sludge capacity

Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Society in Kileshandra in Co Cavan has improved the sludge throughput of its wastewater treatment plant by installing a Centriquip Centrifuge

Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Society in Kileshandra in Co Cavan has improved its wastewater treatment plant by installing a Centriquip Centrifuge.

The CQ5000 machine has multiplied 3-fold the amount of solids that can be removed from the plant every day.

Rory Farrell, Environmental Manager for Lakeland Dairies, explained that the company had used their wastewater treatment plant for approximately 30 years.

The company had, however, outgrown the capacity of its old equipment.

"The Centriquip machine can put through 45 cubic metres per hour of sludge from the settling tanks," he said: "That's three times the capacity of the old system".

The wastewater generated at Lakeland Dairies is mostly as a result of the CIP (Cleaning in Place) system used to wash the processing equipment.

Lakeland uses two settling tanks to settle sludge as part of its wastewater treatment process.

The new CQ5000 draws its feed from the bottom of these tanks and from two sludge-thickening tanks.

It separates the clean water, returning this to the water treatment plant: the solid matter is then used on land as a fertiliser.

Centriquip is the UK's largest manufacturer of decanter centrifuges.

The equipment for Lakeland Dairies was supplied in Ireland by its Irish agent.

Centriquip supplies a wide range of centrifuges and drum thickeners for use throughout the water treatment industry.

In addition to its new equipment sales the company has the ability to service and repair any make of centrifuge at its workshops in Derbyshire, allowing it to return equipment to full service very quickly, often faster than would be possible using the original equipment manufacturers.

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