Skip to main content

Sennebogen’s 830 Crawler and the sweet smell of success in Germany

Since 1942, the company Hermann Trollius has been processing limestone and dolomite in the Bavarian town of Lauterhofen and refining it for agricultural use, as well as in the building and industrial sectors. Trollius is now for the first time using residue from washing crushed dolomite, thanks to a Sennebogen material handler. The oft-discarded viscous mass is pumped out and then used as fertiliser. Manager Hermann Trollius - the third generation to run the family-owned company of 60 employees - says th
January 4, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
Sennebogen: suction excavator pumping dolomite grit
Since 1942, the company Hermann Trollius has been processing limestone and dolomite in the Bavarian town of Lauterhofen and refining it for agricultural use, as well as in the building and industrial sectors.

Trollius is now for the first time using residue from washing crushed dolomite, thanks to a 2924 Sennebogen material handler. The oft-discarded viscous mass is pumped out and then used as fertiliser. Manager Hermann Trollius - the third generation to run the family-owned company of 60 employees - says that he constantly strives to combine tradition and modern methods to create value for man and nature; It's “total resource utilisation", he says.

Washing the crushed dolomite rock produces a slurry by-product composed of extra-fine dolomite dust. This mixture of water and dust, which previously had no use and was dumped in large quantities, is now included in a natural recycling loop as fertiliser.

"We've been looking for a way to use valuable raw dolomite material for a long time,” he says. “Limestone has been used as fertilizer for a while now – why not use the dolomite slurry in the same way? After extensively sampling and testing slurry extraction, we decided to implement the project professionally. The solution ultimately was to use a Sennebogen material handler with a powerful suction pump."

A progressing cavity pump moves the material through a pipe and into a conventional manure tank. The dolomite is ultimately taken out to the fields where it is sprayed as manure.

The Sennebogen 830 crawler, provided and supported by sales and service partner IBS Baumaschinen Service, is the carrier for the progressive cavity pump and extensive piping. The machine houses the pump drive and the controller for the tube arm. The hose lines and piping were largely developed and constructed by Trollius. The Sennebogen material handler has a crawler undercarriage and 164kW diesel engine that would usually be used at scrapyards or ports. The deciding factor for choosing the Sennebogen 830 was its 17m reach for positioning the pump at the edge of the landfill basin. With this solution, operator Bernd Kuhn has centralised control of all components and an ideal view of the pump and work area from the Maxcab comfort cab, which can be extended up to 2.7m.

It takes just four minutes to fill the manure tank, which has been driven into the quarry several times a day for the past several weeks by contractor Tobias Guttenberger. It is then taken to the surrounding fields where the liquid dolomite dust is sprayed as fertiliser.

With a particle size of just 0.007mm, the dissolved dust is 10 times thinner than a human hair, allowing it to penetrate the soil in the form of fertilizer and also be absorbed directly by plants.

Guttenberger is also putting his money on the pale yellow liquid for manure refinement. A mixture of only 10% dolomite to manure reduces the odour of manure dramatically.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Lowering the carbon footprint of asphalt production
    September 28, 2023
    Advances in asphalt production will reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.
  • Ground penetrating radar used to investigate tunnel deterioration
    May 13, 2015
    Using ground penetrating radar to determine reason for serious pavement settling in Kentucky-Tennessee tunnel Just a few years after the opening of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, highway officials noticed moderate to severe settling of the continuously reinforced concrete pavement. The mountain tunnel provides an important link between Kentucky and Tennessee along US25E and the problem looked serious, with many voids discovered beneath the pavement surface. To investigate the problems, the Kentucky Transpor
  • Germany builds its first major PPI autobahn project
    July 7, 2015
    Rebuilding of one of the oldest motorways in Germany is testing out the possibilities for public-private project road construction reports Adrian Greeman A freshly renovated section of the A8 Autobahn in southern Germany will be watched with some interest this summer as traffic begins driving along its rebuilt carriageway and additional third lanes. That is not because of any special road features, other than a distinctive reddish colour to its concrete surface, but because it is a first fullscale public
  • New drilling and blasting technology aids efficient quarrying
    April 13, 2012
    Innovations in drilling and blasting and crushing and screening are bringing major economies of scale to aggregate production operations. Drilling and blasting is an area where new technology is offering major saving to quarrying companies. This is another important factor in the quarrying process, as inefficient drilling and blasting can have major financial repercussions.