Waste as fuel
We burn three main alternative fuels in our kilns: solid recovered fuel (SRF) from domestic waste, meat and bone meal (MBM) and Cemfuel, made from industrial solvents. The availability of MBM (which is 100 per cent biomass) has declined as a result of market changes and the fact that suppliers are using it themselves for power generation rather than supplying the cement industry.
The use of waste derived fuels increased to 54 per cent of kiln energy consumption. The biomass (carbon neutral) proportion of the fuels increased to 21 per cent, largely as a result of the increased use of SRF and higher biomass content in the SRF used.
Our alternative fuel consumption is above the EU average of 40 per cent, but any further improvement will depend upon the availability of suitable fuels.
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Cement fuel derived from waste
2010 (baseline)
2015
2016
2017
All waste
158,704 (53%)
214,820 (53%)
168,091 (45%)
194,338 (54%)
Biomass
74,429 (24%)
71,017 (19%)
49,525 (14%)
73,314 (21%)
Data has been amended for all years to omit the energy content of PFA
