Parasitic load and wasted energy demands attention – say Landia

Specifying smaller, cheaper mixers is often bad practice, says Landia’s Paul Davies.

”If industry is serious about reducng energy costs, it’s high time the issue of parasitic load was properly addressed,” says Davies.

”Less expensive mixers might satisfy the purchasing department or the accountant who unfortunately appears to be running the show, but long term,we’re seeing these smaller mixers burning up energy 24 hours per day, whereas a larger mixer may only have to run for 10 minutes per hour. If you apply an actual engineering solution, which depressingly, some accountant with his head stuck in a pc might not understand, there are energy savings to be made of between 30% to 75%”.
Davies stresses that installed power must not be compared to absorbed power. In Landia’s case, where process guarantees are provided to customers, there is a huge difference between the two.

He added: ”Mixers should be sized to cope with any eventuality, in biogas for example, overloading of the digester, future expansion, change in substrates, change in dry matter – but if your mixers are already having to work to full capacity, 24/7, there’s no chance of that – and you’re stuck. Less gas, less profit. It’s your choice”.