One of Europe's largest biodiesel plants converts tallow — a rendered form of beef or mutton fat — and cooking oils into biodiesel fuel. The process requires the use of transfer pumps, which are under constant threat of clogging due to the nature of the raw materials used.
Working with AxFlow, a leading European supplier of safe, cost-effective fluid handling solutions, SPX helped the biodiesel plant combat that threat with new high efficiency pumps.
Biodiesel Flows Smoothly
The biodiesel plant, which operates around-the-clock, counts on the operating efficiency and maximum uptime of its pumps.
According to AxFlow representatives, the previously used pumps had required frequent cleaning and were often damaged by the aggressive nature and temperature of the pumped materials.
Since installing three Universal® Series pumps from Waukesha® Cherry-Burrell® (WCB), an SPX company, Axflow says that its customer has reported higher levels of operating efficiency than were provided by the replaced pumps.
The WCB pumps operate on the circumferential-piston principle. Arc-shaped rotor pistons travel in ring-shaped cylinders machined in the pump body, which produce a smooth product flow without destructive pulses or pressure peaks, and without valves or complex parts.
For high viscosity fluids, the large fluid cavities of the rotors, along with the large easy-entry anti-cavitation ports, allow efficient pumping of slurries and liquids containing solids of the nature encountered in biodiesel processing.