Hidrostal pump lowers carrot cleaning costs

Produce World, the largest grower and supplier of fresh vegetables in the UK, and one of the largest in Europe, provides a wide range of conventional and organic vegetables to the major supermarket chains.

Produce World’s Yaxley site deals exclusively in organic vegetables, including carrots. On arrival at the plant the carrots are off-loaded from a lorry and pre-washed using recycled wash water.

The carrots from the field, when mixed with the water, leave a very abrasive media consisting of flint, stones, sand, soil, weed and the occasional carrot!

The challenging nature of the application had previously led Produce World to choose a pump with a forgiving impeller design which can handle solids and fibrous material, but which had a greater power absorption and energy usage than other designs. The washing process was conducted on an enclosed web, open belt conveyor method.

Produce World has now switched to an open catchment design with a sloping bench arrangement to the sump area and a Hidrostal immersible pump. The boom wash system aids the movement and flushing of newly arrived field carrots off the lorry at the very start of the process into the sump. The wash water is pumped to a rotary screened drum where most of the solids are filtered out before re-entering the boom wash system once more. This process occurs each time a lorry arrives with fresh field carrots.

In the Hidrostal Screw Centrifugal impeller, the single spiral vane impeller is axially extended creating a large free passage for solids but at the same time maintaining an optimum hydraulic design leading to high efficiencies, low shear pumping and low velocity at the pump inlet.

The Hidrostal pump has retained the desired solids handling capabilities and has provided longevity in its operation. The pump has also ensured a reduction in maintenance costs, downtime and operational spend associated with the cleaning and maintenance of the previous open belt conveyor method.

In addition, the Hidrostal immersible pump with its 5.5 kW, 4-pole, 3-phase motor has resulted in a reduction in power consumption by 50%, compared to the previous end suction-style pump that required an 11 kW motor.