Plant engineering FAQ

Work back from the finished product: tonnes per hour × shift hours ÷ process yield, then multiply by the fresh-to-finished ratio for your feedstock (see the capacity planning page). A 5 t/h single-shift powder line typically needs 100–120 t/day of fresh manure.

Design the process line on the annual average with a duty margin, and size reception and buffer storage on the peak month. Buffer volume is much cheaper than extra process capacity.

Yes, and blending usually improves the process. State the types and their shares in the design basis, because the moisture and C/N of the blend decide the amendment and fermentation design.

Above roughly 65% moisture, the pore space fills with water and the pile goes anaerobic unless it is turned or aerated constantly. Wet feedstock is normally dewatered or mixed with dry amendment before fermentation.

Start from the site: if you have land and neighbours are distant, a turned windrow is cheapest per tonne. If space is tight, use groove bays; if labour is scarce, aerated static piles; if the site is urban, cold, or odour-sensitive, in-vessel.

Powder needs grinding, screening and bagging. Granules add granulation, drying, cooling, a second screening and often coating. Choose granules when your market pays a premium and you can support the fuel and maintenance demand.

A powder plant normally does not. A granular plant usually does, unless it uses extrusion or pellet-mill granulation at low moisture. The dryer is the largest thermal and electrical load in the plant, so the decision belongs in the design basis.

Eight to fourteen weeks from raw material to bagged product, dominated by fermentation and curing. The processing line itself takes minutes.

Indicative: 2,000–4,000 m² for a small plant, 6,000–12,000 m² for medium, 20,000 m² or more for industrial. Fermentation and storage usually take 60–70% of the area. The planner on this site returns a first-order figure for your own numbers.

From about 120 kW for a small powder plant to several megawatts for an industrial plant with drying. The connected load is calculated from the equipment schedule with a starting-current check on the largest motor.

For anything above a small farm plant, yes. Where three-phase supply is unavailable or unreliable, the design includes a generator connection for critical sections, and equipment is selected accordingly.

Sometimes for the processing section, subject to thickness and drainage. Fermentation areas usually need new falls to a leachate channel, so they are re-laid or overlaid to design.

Typically six to ten months for a medium plant: three to six weeks design, 60–100 days fabrication, four to eight weeks shipping and clearance, four to eight weeks erection and commissioning. Civil works run in parallel and usually control the programme.

Power, water and compressed air available; two to three weeks of feedstock within the design moisture range; cured material for the processing line; and a named operating team for the whole period.

Mainly labour, electricity, drying fuel, wear parts and maintenance. Wear parts and fuel are the items most often underestimated in a first-year budget — both appear in the critical-spares list and the mass and energy balance.

Yes. Extra fermentation capacity, buffer storage, a second shift and parallel finishing equipment are the usual sequence. Planning that sequence at layout stage is nearly free; retrofitting it is not.

Both. Complete plants are our main work, but customers with an existing line can buy individual sections — a fermentation system, a grinding and screening package, a granulation and drying line, or bagging equipment — integrated into what they already have.

Yes. Retrofit and integration work is a significant part of our engineering, and it always starts with measurements of the existing plant rather than assumptions from its drawings.