Augean manages hard to handle wastes focussing on delivering the best environmental outcomes at its UK treatment and disposal infrastructure. Augean services the UK Renewable Energy, Infrastructure and Construction, Nuclear and Radioactive, Processing and Manufacturing, and the Oil and Gas sectors.

For the UK’s Renewable Energy sector, the Augean group is a Trusted Partner for Energy from Waste (EfW) and Biomass plants, for the collection and treatment of residues and Specialist Industrial Services.

Augean is the UK's market leader for treating Air Pollution Control Residues (APCr), Fly Ash, and hazardous Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA) from EfW and Biomass plants, providing routes for both recovery and disposal of these residues. Understanding the technical challenges in transporting and handling these specialised waste streams, Augean has the appropriate permits and processes to treat a wide range of energy plant residues.

Augean treats around 200,000 tonnes annually of APCr and Fly Ash, and around 50,000 tonnes annually of hazardous IBA, at two strategically located facilities in Teesside and near Peterborough. Augean has a proven track record for safely and compliantly collecting and treating residues from energy plants, whilst delivering excellent customer service.

In 2023, Augean acquired Future Industrial Services, which is a UK market leader in providing specialist industrial cleaning, decommissioning and decontamination for the Renewable Energy, Petrochemical, Manufacturing, Utilities, and Cement sectors throughout the UK. Due to its track record and expertise in providing Specialist Industrial Services we have kept the branding - Future Industrial Services part of the Augean group.

The Augean group now has 23 sites throughout the UK and is the only UK operator who has the resources to undertake Specialist Industrial Services for the EfW and Biomass sector, with its own infrastructure to treat the residues arising from the industrial cleaning process.

Through the combined operating experience of Augean and Future Industrial Services, we offer the following tips that should prove useful for developers and operators of EfW plants:

• At the EfW plant design and EPC stages: the EfW silo and related infrastructure for ash residues have sometimes seemed like an afterthought. For example, when collecting APCr from a new plant for the first time, we found insufficient clearance for the tanker to manoeuvre beneath the silo discharge point. In another case, the internal site traffic plan restricted the tanker's access to the silo. While understandably the main focus for EfW stakeholders is on waste bunkering, combustion, emissions control, combined heat and power (CHP), and potentially carbon capture, inputting best practices at the design stage, especially with the EfW EPC contractor, helps ensure efficiency is designed into the residue end of the EfW process. The end result being that APCr from the EfW plant commissioning phase can be collected smoothly, avoiding unwanted surprises.
• Selecting your APCr offtaker: APCr is hazardous, and you want it to be, because it contains material that is captured by the EfW plant’s air pollution control system. Therefore, APCr should capture any ‘contaminants’, such as heavy metals, that you want to avoid being emitted through the EfW stack. From our experience, the primary selection criteria for your APCr offtaker should be to ensure your offtaker can accept the APCr specification without charging ‘extras’ if it falls outside tight parameters. We recommend that you avoid a scenario with your APCr offtaker similar to a house extension where you agree a price with your builder and then when the work is underway, cost-creep with extra, perhaps hidden, charges then start to add to the overall cost. It is important to find an offtaker that can accept a wide APCr specification with treatment processes that are tolerant of APCr specification variables. As is ensuring that the APCr treatment offtaker is: capable of accepting APCr delivered in bulk in tankers and also in bags on a curtain sider vehicle; has sufficient treatment capacity; is non-reliant on carbon-intensive raw materials; and can provide traceability of its treatment outputs. This is typically the optimum de-risk position for EfW plants in order for the APCr offtaker to provide cost certainty as well as ensuring service deliverability, reliability and flexibility.

• At the EfW plant operational stage: we work hard with EfW plant teams to eliminate the operational inefficiencies that cause service issues and cost. Scheduling collections weekly in advance and then reviewing and adjusting to flex collections with EfW plant performance is essential in order to optimise APCr collections. Aiming to use the same tanker that delivers lime to the EfW plant to then collect from the APCr silo saves cost and carbon emissions by avoiding additional road miles. Using larger bodied tankers where the APCr is lighter in density often makes good sense to maximise payload. These approaches not only provide economic benefits but also contribute to environmental sustainability and support ESG objectives.
• During EfW plant shut-downs: whether it’s planned or unplanned EfW plant shut-downs, our experience has shown that it’s best practice to ensure the maintenance, such as boiler or silo cleans, is undertaken by an experienced EfW plant Industrial Services team who has the right kit of specialist plant, equipment and vehicles in-house, and with health, safety and compliance top-of-mind. It also greatly reduces add-on costs and provides a proper audit trail where the Industrial Services provider has the breadth of capability with its own infrastructure network to treat the wastes recovered from the cleaning process.

Future Industrial Services utilises its own direct work force therefore eliminating the risk of reliability and ability of outsourced personnel. Future Industrial Services has the largest UK fleet of High Air Flow Vaccumation Trucks, providing vital support, reassuring availability and supply. Combining this with top-class safety and compliance record puts Future Industrial Services at the forefront of the sector.

The Augean group supporting the EfW Sector:

The Augean group is delighted to continue to support the UK’s Renewable Energy sector. Augean is a sponsor and exhibitor at the EfW conference, where @Richard Brooke is chairing an Ashes and Residues session on the second day of the conference. 

At the Operational Optimisation conference on 30th September to 1st October 2024, Future Industrial Services is a sponsor, an exhibitor, and Matt Blake and @Richard Brooke will be presenting at the conference on “Achieving safe, compliant, and timely Industrial Services during EfW and Biomass Plant shut-downs.”

We look forward to seeing you at these events, and please feel free to contact us in the meantime.

Tel: 0333 034 9004

sales@augean.co.uk

www.augean.co.uk