Lafarge Cement UK has announced it is applying to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for permission to use Processed Sewage Pellets (PSP) as an additional waste-derived fuel at its Dunbar Works.

The Works has already managed to replace 40 per cent of its annual coal usage each year with the established waste-derived fuels, tyres and Recycled Liquid Fuel (RLF). Now the company would like to add PSP, a fuel classed as ‘carbon neutral biomass’.

Dunbar Works manager Nigel Blair explained that using PSP will not only be safe and cost-effective, it will also help reduce the site’s carbon footprint and support Scotland’s Zero Waste strategy.

He told local press: “At a time like this when we are operating in a very tough market, this fuel offers us an economically viable and environmentally beneficial way to protect the business for the future and safeguard jobs, as well as being part of Scotland’s waste solution.

“Working closely with Sapphire, our on-site experts on waste-derived fuels, we have proven that using RLF from the solvent industry and tyres in the cement-making process is a safe and effective way of recovering energy from these wastes – and reducing our costs. We now hope that PSP will allow us to take our coal replacement rate up over 50 per cent.”