Dramatic reduction in gas fuel at Merseyside recycling and recovery plant
Leading recycling and waste management company, Veolia Environmental Services has announced plans to invest £3.5 million in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and dramatically reduce gas fuel consumption at its Merseyside recycling and recovery plant. The proposed investment at the Stalbridge Solvent Recovery plant in South Liverpool will help the company reduce its gas fuel consumption by 90% and save up to 5,000 tonnes of carbon a year - an amount of carbon equivalent to 1,000 homes.
The facility is an important component in the City Region’s pharmaceutical and chemical industry cluster recovering waste solvents from production processes, recovering them through distillation and returning them into the manufacturing chain. It would require 150,000 barrels of crude oil to produce an equivalent volume of solvents such as ethanol and toluene for use by local manufacturers.
The company undertook a strategic review of the Stalbridge operation with the aim of increasing overall recovery rates and significantly reducing carbon footprint. The proposed investment will create a new CHP plant that will use residue derived from the recovery process to generate steam for distillation and electricity for use on site. The CHP facility will indirectly create additional short-term construction work as well as two additional skilled operational jobs and will secure the future employment of existing staff at Stalbridge.
Veolia Environmental Services’ Project Manager for the Stalbridge project, Tony Garnett commented:
“The company acquired the facility from its previous owners in 2008 as part of our wider investment in the Merseyside area. We are committed to improving environmental performance and lowering our carbon footprint. At the moment we recover approximately 68% of the solvent material processed at Stalbridge with just over 30% being taken off site for disposal.
“The Combined Heat and Power plant will enable us to boost the recovery rate to almost 90% and will generate steam and electricity to reduce our gas fuel consumption by 90% as well.”
Veolia Environmental Services have already been working with Envirolink Northwest, The Mersey Partnership and The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and will be engaging with wider stakeholders prior to the submission of a detailed scheme before the end of the year.
Maresa Molloy, Head of Policy and Information at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce commented:
“This is a highly innovative solution that will substantially reduce overall carbon consumption whilst at the same time improving the commercial efficiency of the operation creating and securing jobs. We are pleased to be helping to promote this kind of progressive investment that demonstrates the opportunities that exist to create an environmentally sustainable and commercially competitive local economy.”