Sludge reducer takes the lead
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Bryan Jarvis • A new design of tanker that can quickly reduce the volume of sludge carried by up to 20% of its mass looks set to make changes in waste transport.
Vacuum tank trailer builder VaRely Engineering of Ledston Luck near Leeds has included an on-board dosing plant to mix a polymer with the incoming slurry.
This is sucked up into the vehicle's holding tank where the polymer reacts to remove the water, leaving the muck cake inside and the water escaping through filter screens.
Within minutes the clear permeate (released water) can be pumped back to the original source, used with the high pressure jetting pump to clean drains or retained to clean out the tank interior.
Reducing the volume carried in this way means a large capacity tanker can be used in a more cost-effective way.
It can service a number of sites on the same day without having to return to base to discharge.
The first "de-watering" tanker has been built at the instigation of an East Anglian poultry supplier and is working under contract with Norwich haulier M Gaze.
For this application, VE converted the El m (20ft) steel hooklift-type container into a tipping tandem axled trailer with front-mount Edbro hydraulics.
The stand-alone system has a four-cylinder SAME diesel unit powering the jurop V1.20 positive displacement pump.
"Over the next 10 years," says MD Gerry Vallely, "this system could halve the number of sludge carriers presently running around the UK which is good news for the environment".
YE builds a range of tankers but its speciality is building monococque tanker trailers that haul 24-tonne payloads. It took Iwo years to develop and there are more than 100 in service, 15 in its own tanker hire fleet.
A new option on its gully emptier models is the fitting of on-board weighing systems, the first being mounted to its latest Renault 17-tonne demonstrator vehicle.