Click here for further information on the Gas Scrubber System.
Fascinating facts
- Quarrying first took place in Ribblesdale 400 years ago
- A works was first built on the current site in 1936
- Since then the number of employees has grown from 107 to 420
- Each year 1.4 million tonnes of cement are produced
- The raw materials used are 340 million years old
- The works contributes £12 million each year to the local economy
A long tradition
Around 400 years ago local people burned limestone in their own backyards, using the lime for building and agriculture, but like many things in life the process eventually became highly mechanised.
The first development was the appearance of a number of small kilns in the Clitheroe area, but by 1895 a recognisable cement manufacturing works was operating close to the present site.
In 1936 the Ribblesdale Cement Company built the forerunner of the works that exists today. Initially it was capable of producing 75,000 tonnes of cement a year, but expansion and investment meant that by the 1970s the capability had risen to 800,000 tonnes.
There was another big increase in production capacity in 1983 when £30 million was invested in a new dry-process kiln, enabling 1.3 million tonnes of cement to be produced each year.
Today more than two million tonnes of limestone are quarried at Ribblesdale for an annual production of 1.4million tonnes of cement. Increased production efficiencies mean that the work of the three kilns that existed at the end of 2004 will be carried out by one kiln.
This is the more modern “dry” process kiln and was the first in the UK to use a gas cleaning system to convert sulphur dioxide into gypsum. This reduces the amount of sulphur dioxide produced during the production process by 90 per cent, plus half of the very small amount of dust and ammonia, making it one of the most environmentally friendly kilns in existence.
Sustainability
Castle Cement is committed to minimising the effect of its operations on the environment. It has a rigorous environmental management system that is accredited to the ISO 14001 standard and its use of alternative fuels plays a key role in meeting government recycling targets through the recovery of energy from wastes that otherwise would be incinerated or disposed of in landfill sites.
Ribblesdale works has used alternative fuels since the early 1990s. The first introduced, Cemfuel, is a highly specialised fuel. Its components include methanol, ethanol and acetone, which are extracted during the recycling of everyday products such as printing inks. Use of Cemfuel has reduced emissions of acid rain gases.
Tyres that cannot be put to any other use are also employed as a fuel at Ribblesdale. They are shredded before being passed to the kiln and are an important energy source. The high temperatures in the kiln mean all components of the tyre are completely destroyed and no black smoke produced. Their use has resulted in a 20 per cent reduction in the release of oxides of nitrogen from the manufacturing process.
As well as recovering energy, use of tyres helps also to solve a national waste management problem because 40 million of them are scrapped in the UK every year and disposal is a major headache.
The most recent alternative fuel introduced is Agricultural Waste Derived Fuel, (AWDF) It is fibrous in appearance, feels like damp sand and is produced by sterilising and grinding abattoir waste. Previously this waste would have been buried in landfill sites.
In keeping with its position as an industry leader, Ribblesdale was the first plant in the UK to introduce this fuel. It is widely used in the European cement industry and Castle was able to draw on the experience existing within parent company HeidelbergCement before its introduction.
Productive use of other wastes is also high on Castle’s agenda at Ribblesdale. Cement kiln dust (CKD) is removed from the cement manufacturing process for quality control reasons. Much is returned to the manufacturing process to replace other raw materials but, in recent years, CKD from Ribblesdale has been used to stabilise and create fertile soil on spoil heaps at Silverwood Colliery in Yorkshire. The CKD is alkaline and the coal spoil acidic so the two are mixed with a suitable biosolid – such as sewage sludge - to neutralise the acidity and add nutrients.
Serving the community
Without cement we would have no homes to live in, schools to learn in, hospitals to be treated in and travel would still be down dirt roads. In short the built environment could not survive without cement.
Ribblesdale’s output is used in large parts of the north of England and Scotland. About eighty per cent is supplied in bulk tankers while the other is distributed as bagged product. The most popular product produced in Ribblesdale is Castle Ordinary Portland Cement.
Cement from Ribblesdale has been used in such high profile projects as Manchester United’s home at Old Trafford, Manchester International Airport and The Deep, Hull’s £45million submarium that’s so deep that the fish tank has to be cleaned by “deep sea” divers. In Scotland, two major contracts have been the Skye Bridge and the upgrading of the A77 road to the M77, between Glasgow and Kilmarnock.
Alongside supplying cement, it is Castle’s policy to be an active supporter of the community in which it operates and this has shown itself in many different ways, not just in the money it contributes through wages to local people and the buying of services and products in the Clitheroe area.
The company’s support ranges from raising money for a Northwest regional air ambulance to providing a home in Lanehead quarry for a section of the British Bee Keepers Association. And money is regularly spent to make on-site changes that benefit near neighbours by minimising noise and dust levels.
Castle believes that its role in serving the community includes the steps it takes to protect the environment. In advance of increased extraction at Bellman quarry, some 11,000 trees were planted initially and more added later in order to thicken the vegetation around the site.
Screening banks were built to shield the view from neighbouring properties and an area of the quarry was grassed over and is grazed by cattle. Lanehead quarry has been similarly screened and, for the longer term, the company has agreed a restoration scheme that will make the quarry a focus for public enjoyment.
Both quarries have become a haven for wildlife and a research programme has been commissioned into the fauna and flora to be found in Lanehead quarry. The wildlife found there is even more diverse than that found at some nature reserves. A study looked closely at the plant and insect life and identified nesting peregrine falcons and ravens as well as 80 other species of birds.
Reports of these activities and other company developments are included in Open Door, a newsletter circulated by Castle to every household within a five-mile radius of the works, produced as a means of keeping the local community informed.
|
