Waste as fuel
Waste fuel use increases
We continue to invest in new facilities at our three cement works to enable greater use of alternative fuels. These include Profuel – a solid kiln fuel manufactured from paper, plastic and fibrous wastes that are either uneconomic or impossible to recycle – and solid recovered fuel (SRF), which is made from domestic waste. Use of waste as a fuel in our cement kilns remained static at 56 per cent while the use of biomass fell slightly due to difficulty in sourcing material of suitable quality.
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Cement fuel derived from waste - tonnes data
Cement fuel derived from waste
2010 (baseline)
2013
2014
2015
All waste
158,704 (53%)
181,738 (51%)
207,121 (54%)
214,820 (53%)
Biomass
74,429 (24%)
59,378 (16%)
75,866 (20%)
71,017 (19%)
Data has been amended for all years to omit the energy content of PFA
Target: 35 per cent use of biofuel by 2020
Investment boosts waste fuel use
A new £1.7 million system for feeding alternative fuels into the kiln at Padeswood cement works was completed during the year. Padeswood burns coal, Cemfuel (waste industrial solvents), meat and bone meal (MBM) and SRF. The aim is to reduce coal, replace MBM and increase SRF to 40 per cent – reducing costs and the amount of waste going to landfill.
Lorries delivering SRF tip directly into hoppers which then convey the fuel at a rate of 10 tonnes an hour over screens and into the plant’s preheater tower.