Author Archives: admin

Case Studies, Dewater Gas Wells with Solar, Solar Pumps

Solar Apollos Dewater Gas Wells At Old East Coast Superfund Site

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A construction site with solar panels installed on the ground features equipment for water piping, including a top-head drive pump and a control box connected to pipes. A small excavator is in the background. The area is grassy with bare trees in the distance.
03
Jul

Solar Apollos dewatering closed 1955 landfill that still generates smelly gas

Municipalities, counties responsible for thousands of closed sites

Apollo Solar Piston Pumps™ from Blackhawk Technology Company were the choice of a nationally respected engineering firm to remove groundwater and condensate from new gas-extraction wells at an East Coast landfill closed in the late 1970s after being designated a Superfund site.

Counties and municipalities across North America are responsible for thousands of closed landfills, often commissioned before the advent of effective liners. Old landfills can still generate methane, and many have remediation issues for seeping leachate.

Apollo Solar Piston Pumps™ from Blackhawk Technology Company were the choice of a nationally respected engineering firm to remove groundwater and condensate from new gas-extraction wells at an East Coast landfill closed in the late 1970s after being designated a Superfund site.

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Case Studies, Remediation & Recovery, Steel Plans Tar, Toxic Chemical Recovery, V-2, Viscous Liquids

V-2 Low-Flow Pneumatic Pump Recovers Tar

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Industrial site with machinery and tools. A metal container with hoses and a hydraulic tool, including a top-head drive pump, is in the foreground. A larger tank is situated behind the container, with various pipes and industrial equipment visible in the background.
01
Jul

Aussie steel plant: ‘performed exactly as we hoped’

In 2015, engineers at an Australian steel plant works discovered tar in an environmental-monitoring bore.

As part of the investigation and plan for remediation, the company put in a 2-foot diameter, 12-foot-deep well, topping it with a modified-extended version of Blackhawk’s versatile V-2 Pneumatic Piston Pump™ later in the year.

The engineers decided to link the discharge hose to a skip bin (dumpster), with an overflow hose for ground water return to the well. When filled, the bin is emptied using a vacuum truck. The tar is then taken to the company’s recycling plant.

In 2015, engineers at an Australian steel plant works discovered tar in an environmental-monitoring bore.

As part of the investigation and plan for remediation, the company put in a 2-foot diameter, 12-foot-deep well, topping it with a modified-extended version of Blackhawk’s versatile V-2 Pneumatic Piston Pump™ later in the year.

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Case Studies, Coal-Ash, Coal-Ash Leachate, News

Pumping Coal-Ash Leachate to Stay in Compliance

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A solar panel is mounted on a metal frame in an open field with tall grass, connected to an electrical box and a cylindrical pipe below, resembling a top-head drive pump. A flag is attached to the top of the frame. The sky is partly cloudy with bright sunlight illuminating the scene.
01
Jul

Apollo Solar Pumps Operate at
Remote Sites, Without Trenched Power

Near coal-fired electric power plants across the U.S. lies the residue of burned bituminous. The EPA calls it Coal Combustion Residuals (CCRs) — a combination of powdery light ash, heavy bottom ash, boiler slag and flue-gas desulfurization material.

The residue is commonly known as coal ash. It is often buried at sites officially classified as solid-waste landfills.

As with all landfills, rainwater can infiltrate a site to create liquid leachate. Coal-ash fluid is clear but can contain salts, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals. Fugitive coal-ash leachate can threaten public health.

Positive-displacement solar piston units pump virtually anything that flows, including high temperature, viscous or foamy fluids at any pH; operate at any angle including horizontal; are unaffected by changes in positive or negative pressure; can run dry without harm;

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Case Studies, Clean Energy / RNG, Manure to Energy

Manure to Energy

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A fenced area with a solar-powered water pump system, featuring a top-head drive pump. The setup includes two solar panels mounted on a pole, red pipes, and control equipment encased in a grey box. Surrounding the equipment is a gravel path with green vegetation in the background.
05
Apr

ZERO-EMISSION SOLARS PUMP BIOGAS CONDENSATE SUMPS AT MISSOURI HOG FARMS MANURE-TO-ENERGY PROJECT

When America’s largest hog producer, Smithfield Foods, joined with one of the country’s most respected renewable-energy engineers, Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE), to create Monarch Bioenergy in 2020, the concept of turning manure to renewable natural gas (RNG) at Smithfield’s sprawling Missouri farm sites took firm shape.

Hog waste went to a covered lagoon, where the decomposing manure produced methane, which was to be scrubbed and ultimately fed into natural gas pipelines.

When America’s largest hog producer, Smithfield Foods, joined with one of the country’s most respected renewable-energy engineers, Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE), to create Monarch Bioenergy in 2020

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Case Studies, Elevated Temperatures, ETLF, Landfill Leachate, Remediation & Recovery, Taming ET Sites

A Strategy to Tame ETLF Sites

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An outdoor setup featuring various pipes, valves, and gauges connected to a gas extraction wellhead with a top-head drive pump. The equipment is installed on a grassy hill with a highway and industrial buildings visible in the background. Colorful hoses are attached to the apparatus.
05
Apr

The ETLF Issue

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

High concentrations of varied, recombinant leachate compositions in these Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs) can lead to higher costs for treatment or even the refusal of local wastewater treatment plants to accept the leachate, according to a three-part series by Waste 360 in conjunction with ELEF.

Elevated temperatures also may result in slope instability due to reduced waste strength or increased liquid- or gas-pore pressures; surprise sinkholes, and rapid settlement – all safety and infrastructure issues.

In addition, odor and the possibility of offsite gas migration and leachate release have resulted in public demands for tighter operations and oversight and, occasionally, litigation. Research into the causes and spread of ETLFs is ongoing.

For the past several years, a growing number of landfill managers have confronted temperatures ranging from 150°F to 250°F or more (65°C to 121°C) from deep inside larger, wetter, maturing sites — not from subsurface fires but from biological or chemical exothermic reactions within zones of the landfill itself.

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Case Studies, Landfill Leachate, Remediation & Recovery, Solar Pumps, Solars vs Submersibles

Solars vs Submersibles

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An overhead view of a large cylindrical metal container housing complex industrial machinery with various components, wires, and tubes. A piece of white paper and a small blue and white tool sit at the bottom, adjacent to a top-head drive pump.
05
Apr

Solars Replace Submersibles to Keep Old Landfill Compliant In New Life as AZ City Park

The Paseo Vista Recreation Area is a big hill covered by boulders encased in sturdy wire and decorated with wildflowers. There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

They certainly don’t see the four Apollo Solar Piston Pumps hidden in caissons and powered by unobtrusive low-rise solar panels behind a ridge, which help keep the closed site EPA compliant.

There’s a good chance the Chandler, Ariz., residents visiting the dog park, archery range and playground don’t know (or remember) that the mound was, for 30 years until 2005, the city landfill.

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Electric Pumps, News, Solar Pumps

Apollo Pump Now in Solar or AC

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A metal box labeled "Apollo" is attached to a pipe structure in a grassy field, seemingly part of a top-head drive pump system. An electrical control device is affixed to a pole nearby, connected by wires and an orange extension cord. The sky is clear with scattered clouds in the distance.
05
Apr

Simple & Reliable Top-Head Driver Outperforms With Choice of Power Sources

GLEN ELLYN, IL — Blackhawk Technology’s Apollo piston pumps – versatile and popular choices for landfill leachate, gas-well dewatering, condensate pump and low-flow remediation pumping – are now available with either solar-panel or AC-electric power configurations.

Both Apollo Solar and Apollo-AC pumps feature a rugged, low-draw 3/8 hp motor and simple linear-rod Scottish yoke mechanism with newly designed stuffing box and cartridge seals. As with all Blackhawk piston pumps, the driver motor, power and connections are mounted safely above the wellhead for easy installation and faster servicing at surface grade, cleanly away from the liquid being pumped.

Apollo piston pumps are versatile and popular choices for landfill leachate, gas-well dewatering, condensate pump and low-flow remediation pumping – are now available with either solar-panel or AC-electric power configurations.

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News

Service Exchange Program

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Two industrial pneumatic cylinders with connected components, including gauges and black tubing, are displayed side by side on circular metal bases. Featuring vertical metal rods and grey cylindrical bodies, the setup integrates a top-head drive pump among various mechanical parts attached.
05
Apr

Recondition pneumatic drivers & keep wells pumping, with serious savings

Low-Cost Factory Alternative to Buying New

GLEN ELLYN, IL – Because duty cycle, run time, and normal wear-and-tear can affect even the best of pneumatic pump drivers, Blackhawk Technology Company now offers a significant cost-saving program to keep downhole pumps operating with factory rebuilds of drivers, including Blackhawk’s unique snap-in stuffing-box components.

“Blackhawk’s unique top-head-drive design allows field techs to simply dismount the original above-grade pneumatic driver, rotate in a reserve motor, and pack the driver in a custom shipping case that we provide,” Mark Bertane, Blackhawk’s principal executive, said. “We return the driver in roughly two weeks, good as new and at a remarkably low price.”

Recondition pneumatic drivers & keep wells pumping, with serious savings

GLEN ELLYN, IL – Because duty cycle, run time, and normal wear-and-tear can affect even the best of pneumatic pump drivers, Blackhawk Technology Company now offers a significant cost-saving program to keep downhole pumps operating with factory rebuilds of drivers, including Blackhawk’s unique snap-in stuffing-box components.

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News, Solar Pumps

Compressing Matters

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A solar panel is mounted on a metal stand in the middle of a field, powering a top-head drive pump. The panel is connected to a control box and a small white pipe. The sky is clear and blue, and the surrounding area is covered with dry grass.
05
Apr

Looking at the use of compressed air with leachate and condensate pumps

By Mark Bertane

As seen in MSW Management Magazine

Talk with a seasoned landfill managing engineer about pneumatic power. Pneumatic was already on site when he or she arrived, pushing compressed air significant distances to make leachate and condensate pumps work.

Hardly unusual. It would be difficult to find a North American landfill that doesn’t rely on compressed air. Pneumatic is old-shoe technology – go-to because it is familiar, understood, almost comfortable.

Talk with a seasoned landfill managing engineer about pneumatic power. Pneumatic was already on site when he or she arrived, pushing compressed air significant distances to make leachate and condensate pumps work.

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News

Zero-Emission Solars Pumping

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A fenced area with a solar-powered water pump system, featuring a top-head drive pump. The setup includes two solar panels mounted on a pole, red pipes, and control equipment encased in a grey box. Surrounding the equipment is a gravel path with green vegetation in the background.
04
Apr

Missouri hog farm manure-to-energy project turns methane into natural gas. Roeslein-Smithfield Biogas Condensate Sumps

GLEN ELLYN, IL. – Blackhawk Technology’s Apollo Solar Piston Pumps™ are helping turn pig waste into renewable natural gas (RNG) at a Smithfield Foods Inc.-Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) joint-venture project in Missouri.

Monarch Bioenergy, the Smithfield Renewables/RAE venture entity, installed the zero-emission Apollos early in 2020 to pump 40 biogas methane condensate sumps in the gas-line recovery system. Results have been as required, a good fit for the system, a project engineer said.

Methane captured from manure at Smithfield farms’ hog-finishing operations produces pipeline-quality natural gas that is distributed to RNG markets across the country. Blackhawk, the nation’s leading provider of piston pumps for landfill methane condensate-sump pumping, worked closely with Roeslein to tailor the Apollo specifications to the needs of the extensive site.

As an integral part of the system, condensate sump pumps remove the pipeline moisture that accumulates after the anaerobic digesters converts manure to gas. Blackhawk’s solar pumps with on-off level-control have proven both efficient and dependable in the RNG application, with no carbon emissions, the engineer said.

Blackhawk Technology’s Apollo Solar Piston Pumps™ are helping turn pig waste into renewable natural gas (RNG) at a Smithfield Foods Inc.-Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) joint-venture project in Missouri.

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