[Digestion] Use of centrifugal pump for transferring feedstock into digester

[Marc de Piolenc]

There are at least two other possibilities

- cavitation within the pump leading to loss of "prime"; this is heavily 
dependent on where the pump is installed, bends and constriction in the 
feed line and so on

- formation of gas bubbles in the feed; why wouldn't fermentation start 
in the feed, given the right conditions? Those gas bubbles will act just 
like water vapor (cavitation) or air intrusion, and make the pump lose 
its "prime."

The usual remedy is installing a manual, reciprocating pump in line with 
the centrifugal pump. This is used for initially priming the centrifugal 
pump and for re-priming it if it gets gas-locked or "sucks dry." Whether 
this will work with a relatively thick slurry or not, I don't know.

Marc de Piolenc
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