Cemex UK Climafuel plant to be smaller in scale thanks to technology advances

Cemex UK's new Climafuel waste processing plant no longer needs to be as large as originally planned thanks to advances in technology.

In April last year, SITA UK, one of the UK’s leading recycling and resource management companies, announced that it was joining forces with Cemex to develop two waste recycling plants for the production of Climafuel for Cemex’s Rugby cement plant in Warwickshire. One would be built in Birmingham and the other subsequently in Malpass Farm, adjacent to the Rugby cement plant.

According to recent reports in local newspaper the Rugby Observer, SITA UK has now said the chimney stack at the Malpass Farm will be less than 50ft from the originally-planned 70ft. The associated buildings on the £18m development will also be significantly smaller.

Corrina Scott-Roy, strategic planning manager from SITA UK, said: "Essentially the facility we want to build is the same as the one which already has planning permission, but because of advances in technology we’ll be processing the waste in a slightly different way and won’t need such big buildings.

“We want to reduce the height and size of the eastern process building and at the same time improve the site layout to make sure we can get lorries in and out more efficiently.

"The western process building would remain the same, but there are no plans to build that one yet, as initially it won’t be needed.

"We think the revised plan is an improvement, but as we have a commitment to be producing Climafuel by 2015, we will go ahead and build under the old plans if necessary."

Climafuel, an alternative fuel produced from domestic, commercial and industrial waste has been used successfully at the cement plant since 2007.