Burning the waste in our recovery plant’s combustion chamber releases a mix of gases. These hot gases heat up the water in the boiler into super heated steam. This steam drives the turbine that is attached to the generator, producing electricity. So it’s safe to say that these gases are an essential part of the energy from waste process.
To control flue gases we inject ammonia, hydrated lime, powdered activated carbon and water into the swirling gas flow. This helps to neutralise acids and capture heavy metal particles. The gas is then filtered and the residue captured. This is known as Air Pollution Control Residue (APCR).
While it only accounts for a minor quantity of the plant’s output, we recycle the majority of this material as technology has advanced to treat these residues in an innovative manner converting it into carbon negative secondary aggregates used by the building trade.
As our aim is always to be at the forefront of our industry we were delighted to embrace this new technology. It not only helps us achieve our goal of diverting APCR from landfill but creates a useful, sustainable and carbon negative product as well. To us, it forms a major contribution and recycling solution.