When a leather tannery found growth and success with their leather production in Spain, they also found limits and frustration with their solids handling process. The facility was thickening excess solids from a clarifier by adding lime to the subsequent thickening basin and precipitating the solids. The addition of lime itself meant that some sludge disposal options were off the table and could account for up to a 20% solids increase! The average 2600 lbs of solids per day were then pumped into a filter press where they could be dewatered from about 10-15% solids up to about 30-35% solids.
When their filter press could no longer keep up with demand, the facility sought help from ESMIL’s MDQ Multi-Disk Screw Press. ESMIL conducted a Pilot study in January 2019 to determine how an MDQ upgrade could help and found additional benefits beyond just increased solids treatment capacity. The model that was selected and installed in July was an MDQ 402 (1)C. This machine was capable of up to 150% of their current average solids processing requirement at a low capital expense and provided the option to add dewatering drum for double capacity in the future. In addition to increased treatment capacity, the facility found similar dewatering capability, significantly reduced energy and flushing water consumption, significantly reduced operational labor, and they were even able to stop the addition of Lime. On top of significant operational cost reduction, the MDQ helped to free operators to focus on other tasks and keeps sludge disposal options open.
MDQ 352(1)C
Leather Tannery Solids Discharge
Leather Tannery MDQ installation
