I went to visit Jason Arp at a hog site north of Dunlap, IA yesterday. The weather has been very rainy and overcast in this area the past few weeks, but we finally saw some sun over the weekend. I caught some footage of PCE's small boat that Jason was running in a cement lagoon....until it once again started raining:
PCE agitation boats are fully remote controlled. Start, Stop, Throttle, Steering. This small model was designed with this purpose in mind - for use in cement lagoons. It had to be light enough to easily lift in and out of the lagoon, and very well balanced so it was easy to handle. Jason was pretty nervous handling the boat like this for the first time, but said it went really well and he even agreed to let me come video the process next week at another cement lagoon.
He's been agitating this pit for the last several years with two lagoon pumps that he would move around the pit to really work it up - but he still knew they were leaving piles of solids on the bottom that those pumps just wouldn't reach. Not long after placing the boat yesterday did they see the solids boiling off the bottom. They just couldn't believe it. Pretty soon the boat wasn't moving quite as fast. As he was driving the boat around the lagoon it would drag a bit over piles of solids, and slow down as it was trying to push solids that were floating. He's pretty sure it will take another year before they really get this lagoon cleaned out - that's a lot of solids!
A confession - I'm a bit of a wuss, I really hate standing at lagoon sites when they are being agitated. You all know why. It stinks. Yesterday I was really surprised at how much better it was to tolerate. The boat isn't sending any liquid into the air, and I think it really helps.
I'm working up more of the video from yesterday. It will be on YouTube soon, and also on the Agitation Boat -Video page of our website.
Please post questions and responses - I'll pester Dad for answers, and those of you with boats, we'd love to hear how they are working - good and bad!
Nancy
