A WHITCHURCH engineering and manufacturing company has produced one of its biggest items for an AD/Biogas plant in Ireland.

Landia, based on the Waymills Industrial Estate, has manufactured one of its longest ever Long-Shaft Chopper Pumps – for a slurry pit that is 5.25m deep.

The order was won by DPS Ltd, Landia’s exclusive distributor for Ireland and Northern Ireland and will see the long-shaft chopper pump used in a reception pit, where it will blend cow slurry with other imported media, before pumping it onwards to the primary digester.

DPS General Manager Austin Kennedy admitted they were delighted to get the deal done, and explained how it worked.

He said: “The application is very challenging and would normally require an external tractor-mounted agitator and separate means of conveying the feedstock.

"But with the Landia solution, effective mixing and trouble-free pumping is achieved with just the one unit, therefore reducing capital expenditure, operating costs and maintenance time.”

Designed with its inlet on top of the impeller housing, the Landia Long-Shaft Chopper Pump benefits from having its fan-cooled motor mounted at the opposite end of the drive shaft, outside the slurry.

This Ireland-bound pump doesn’t hold the record though for the longest ever Landia Long-Shaft Chopper Pump. That particular accolade goes to a unit supplied for eastern Europe in 2009, which was more than seven metres long.