Following a six month trial at Howdon Sewage Treatment Works, Northumbrian Water is set to replace a total of four troublesome pumps with FL776 rotary lobe units made by Börger.

Initially, a Borger pump with optimum rotors was put to work in the heavy rag application, transferring sludge from a sludge holding tank to an AD plant. Colin Davison, Mechanical Maintenance Team Leader at Northumbrian Water, explained:

“We wanted to improve this part of our process with a pump that would perform with suitable effectiveness, but also be far more reliable and easier to service than what we were using”.

 He added: 

“Over a sustained 6 month period, the Borger FL776 proved conclusively that it is more than capable of handling this tough application, with the bonus that its maintenance-in-place design makes it much easier and far less time-consuming to service than other pumps”.

 To help reduce costs for Northumbrian Water, Borger will be reusing the 30kW drives from the original pumps.