Last month’s two day UK AD & Biogas exhibition at the NEC has resulted in more business for HUBER Technology where the anaerobic digestion specialists presented their AD technologies to existing and new customers.

The company’s key message at the show was “Get more out of your AD plant”. with the growth of anaerobic digestion set to play an increasingly important part in the UK’s renewable energy mix, process optimisation is seen as a key to delivering operational and bottom line business benefits to operators of AD plants.

Backed up by extensive experience over the last 25 years in the UK wastewater treatment industry, HUBER Technology is flagging up the importance of getting more out of your AD plant, including:

• removing plastics and contaminants from Digestate (helping to achieve PAS 110),
• removing grit / glass to improve digester performance and reduce wear,
• recovering organics from depackaged food waste to improve gas yield and reduce disposal costs.

HUBER has also produced a useful guide for potential users setting out in more detail how the technology can be used to enhance the anaerobic digestion process – click here to download.

So where do HUBER products fit into the AD process?

HUBER pre digestion technology is used for:

• Screening
• Washing and compacting of reject material
• Removing grit and glass
• Imported liquid feed screening

HUBER post digestion technology is used for:

• Plastics removal
• Dewatering
• Digestate cleaning

AD Case Study highlights key benefits

With HUBER’s Sludgecleaner STRAINPRESS® on display at ADbiogas, customers could see at first hand  how the machine helps with plastics removal where residual plastics that are left in the digestate should be removed not only to help meet PAS 110 but also for aesthetic reasons.

The  STRAINPRESS® is in use at an Anaerobic Digestion plant in Wiltshire where the digestate is spread on the surrounding farmland as a neat digestate which is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients and is virtually odourless.

HUBER Sludgecleaner STRAINPRESS®

The initial design of the plant took the digestate straight from the top of the digesters straight into a lagoon. The AD plant wanted to improve the quality of the digestate and approached HUBER Technology to find a solution.

Plastic particles removed from the digestate

HUBER Technology were asked to look at the process and subsequently supplied the totally enclosed HUBER Sludgecleaner Strainpress® unit to remove the plastic particles from the flow between the digesters and the lagoon.

Using the head in the digesters and the level in the lagoon HUBER Technology calculated that there was sufficient head to drive the flow through the 3mm mesh fitted in the STRAINPRESS® without additional pumping. The STRAINPRESS® is totally enclosed and the residual pressure on the discharge side allows the screened digestate to flow over the bund wall of the lagoon.

The HUBER Sludgecleaner Strainpress® does not require any additional water for washing and has complete segregation of the screened material from the feed.

The plastic particles removed from the flow are discharged into a conveyor and conveyed into a skip. The only manual input is skip changing when required.

 Key benefits of the HUBER Sludgecleaner STRAINPRESS® include:

• Help meet PAS110 requirements
• Improved digestate quality
• Dry oversize for disposal

For further information visit www.huber.co.uk or contact T. Clutten on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 07525224521