Case Study: Super Shredder^® To The Rescue

The City of Corning, New York Wastewater Treatment Plant handles wastewater generated by its 10,500 residents. The utility provides full secondary treatment with nitrification, typically processing   1.2 mgd with a peak flow of 6.8 mgd.   After grit screening and primary settling,   the flow enters a trickling filter, is passed to biological contractors for nitrification and the effluent is released to the Chemung River.
Primary and secondary sludge and solids skimmed from the settling tanks are fed into an anaerobic digester heated to 95 to 97F by a spiral heat exchanger. After a retention time of several weeks, the digested solids are mixed with polymer, dewatered, and sent to a landfill.
Since 1994, the facility has relied upon the powerful grinding capabilities of several strategically placed Super Shredder Disintegrators to ensure that operations run smoothly.  “The Franklin Miller Super Shredder has come to the rescue of the spiral design heat exchanger not just once but at two different municipal wastewater plants during my career, restoring their true efficiency and value in handling raw municipal sludge,” said Alan M. Bontorno, Chief Operator.
“Prior to the installation of in-line Super Shredders, raw sludge pumped through the boiler hot water fed heat exchanger, on its way to anaerobic digestion tanks, would hardly go two days in operation before debris slowed and plugged the flow,”  Bontorno explained. “ The smooth spiraling vanes of the heat exchanger should have allowed unconstricted flow despite entrained debris. Yet entanglement occurred between the varying materials and sizes. The Super Shredder got the debris uniform and flowing.”
“Modular construction of the cutting area allows me the option of seal/bearing pre-assembled cartridge replacement for the drive or driven ends when needed, or ordering of individual parts for skilled mechanics to use in a re-build. Either way, in-between the cartridges are housed a rugged and effective cutter and cage assembly that has not failed to make operations better.”

“The service has been very good and the staff is helpful and knowledgeable. Thanks for making a great machine,” Bontorno concluded.
The SUPER  SHREDDER® in-line disintegrator easily reduces the toughest solids in sludge or raw sewage lines. The unit combines unsurpassed grinding capabilities with streamlined, easy to maintain features.  Innovative design provides a high level of open area to fluid flow making the Super Shredder ideal for applications requiring a heavy duty size reduction processor that can handle high flows with minimal headloss.

The SUPER SHREDDER features a patented “spherical shredding” mechanism that cuts and shears tough sewage solids into fine bits. The hard faced stainless steel cutters offer unsurpassed wear resistance. Because of the spherical rotor design, the SUPER SHREDDER has far less moving parts and therefore requires far less maintenance than units with banks of cutter disks. With two easily replaceable one piece cutters, maintenance is convenient and down time is minimal.  Included with the SUPER SHREDDER™ is a S-250 Auto-Reversing control system that senses jam conditions and automatically reverses.