SEEPEX has launched FlowShred, a solid conditioning system that reliably shreds food waste and converts it into a pumpable medium.
By combining a twin-shaft grinder with a progressive cavity pump in a compact, integrated unit, FlowShred enables the controlled removal of organic residues directly at source within food production environments. The system is designed for one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: unpredictable, heterogeneous food waste that disrupts conveying and pumping processes.
Uncontrolled waste streams remain a major operational burden
Across Australia’s food and beverage sector, organic by-products are generated in significant volumes. This includes fruit and vegetable residues, meat and fish trimmings, bakery waste, and rejected or off-spec frozen products.
Industry practice differs depending on scale:
- Small and mid-sized producers typically rely on manual collection, bins, or basic macerators with external disposal logistics
- Large processors use combinations of screw conveyors, standalone grinders, buffer tanks, and pump systems
In both cases, shredding and conveying are often separate process steps, which creates operational challenges. Fibrous or bulky materials frequently cause blockages in conveyors, augers, or pumps. The result is unplanned downtime, higher maintenance effort, and increased disposal and handling costs.
The missing link: integrated conditioning before transport
While macerators, grinders and screw conveyors are widely used across Australian processing plants, they typically operate as standalone units. Waste is reduced in one step, then transferred through another system before final disposal or further processing.
This multi-step approach increases complexity and exposes operations to avoidable risk, particularly when waste composition changes during production cycles. What is often missing is a direct transition from size reduction to controlled transport.
FlowShred addresses this gap by combining shredding and conveying in a single, coordinated system. Food waste is fed into the unit and immediately reduced by a twin-shaft grinder to a defined particle size of approximately 10–20mm.
Directly beneath, a progressive cavity pump continuously transports the conditioned material to silos, tanks or external collection systems. The result is a homogeneous, pumpable suspension that removes instability from the process from the very beginning. Instead of managing waste in multiple steps, FlowShred turns it into a controlled, continuous flow.
Designed for real-world variability in food production
Food processing is highly variable, particularly in fruit, vegetable and mixed production environments. Waste streams frequently include fibrous citrus residues, melon and vegetable pieces, hard cores and mixed organic fractions with fluctuating moisture content.
FlowShred is engineered specifically to handle this variability without process interruption. The twin-shaft grinder ensures consistent particle size and prevents bridging in the feed zone.
A key design feature is the snail geometry intake, which draws in bulky or round materials gradually, reducing peak loads and stabilising the shredding process. This directly translates into fewer blockages, lower mechanical stress and more predictable operation.
Continuous pumping with stable process control
Beneath the grinder, the progressive cavity pump ensures steady, low-pulsation transport of the shredded material. This is critical in installations where waste must often be moved over longer distances to storage tanks, collection points or biogas facilities.
By maintaining a consistent flow, FlowShred improves downstream reliability and reduces the operational variability typically associated with batch-based or manually handled systems.
“With FlowShred, we offer the first fully integrated system combining shredding and conveying of food waste,” SEEPEX product and market manager Bernd-Guntram Schulz said. “The aim is to process heterogeneous organic residues so they can be transported in a controlled and stable manner.”
Lower operating burden, higher process stability
Beyond mechanical performance, FlowShred delivers clear operational advantages that are increasingly relevant to producers:
- reduced manual handling of organic waste
- fewer blockages and emergency interventions
- lower maintenance requirements across the system
- reduced system footprint compared to separate units
The enclosed design also improves cleanliness conditions and helps limit odour emissions in production environments where waste handling is located close to processing areas.
Supporting circular economy targets in Australia
Australia’s food industry is under growing pressure to improve waste recovery and resource efficiency. Organic waste is increasingly directed towards biogas production, where consistency of feed material directly impacts output.
By reducing particle size and creating a uniform, pumpable medium, FlowShred improves the suitability of food waste for anaerobic digestion. Smaller and more consistent particles support faster degradation and more stable biogas production processes. This makes waste not only easier to handle, but more valuable as a resource stream.
A compact system for a complex challenge
FlowShred integrates shredding and pumping into a single, compact unit that can be installed within existing production environments without major redesign. The system replaces fragmented handling stages with a coordinated process that starts at the point of waste generation and extends through to collection points, storage tanks or biogas fermentation facilities.
The result is a more predictable, efficient and stable approach to food waste management – particularly in environments where variability has traditionally been the main source of operational disruption.
As food waste handling remains a daily challenge defined by variability, blockages and fragmented system design, FlowShred integrates shredding and conveying into one controlled process, stabilising material flow from the outset.
This solution helps food producers reduce downtime, simplify operations and improve efficiency in organic waste handling – turning a complex process into a continuous, controlled flow.
Learn more about FlowShred here.
