Tarmac signs SRF agreement with Eco-Power Environmental

Eco-Power Environmental has agreed a deal to provide solid recovered fuel (SRF) pellets to Tarmac's Tunstead cement kiln in Derbyshire, UK.

Eco-Power Environmental has become the first fully-operational, commercial-scale SRF pellet production facility in the UK, following a GBP15M investment in its 125,000tpa facility in Humberside. SRF pellets are manufactured using the non-recyclable residues from dry mixed recycling (DMR) facilities and provide a highly sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional fossil fuels. They are used by a range of energy-intensive industries such as cement and lime, steel and the power sector.

Eco-Power Fuels pellets provide customers with a highly consistent fuel. They can be manufactured to the individual users' specification and offer: 
• Biomass up to 50 per cent 
• High calorific value generating over 20MJ/kg
• Low Chlorine content <0.5 per cent
• Low ash content
• Ability to be co-dosed with fossil fuels using existing equipment.

Tarmac (CRH group) Tunstead Cement Plant manager, Chris Bradbury, said: "Reducing CO₂ at Tunstead is one of the team's top priorities and working closely with our colleagues in Sapphire we have made good progress with sustainable waste-derived fuels throughout 2020 and hope to go further in 2021. 

“We got the opportunity of trialling the SRF pellets early in the year as a replacement for woodchip. The trial went well with only a few modifications required for the inside of the storage silo and feed out system. Once the moderations were completed, we extended the trial which had great results.

In June we then went on to continuous usage and from the start the pellets have proved to be a very stable fuel. These have been one of the main contributors to the continuous high waste-derived fuel substitution rate for fossil fuels from June to the end of the year."