Castle Cement Reducing Raw Material and Fossil Fuel Use

Castle Cement is the UK cement arm of HeidelbergCement Group and meets about a quarter of the demand for cement in the United Kingdom, selling more than three million tons of the product.

Castle has substantially reduced its use of virgin raw materials and fossil fuels over recent years. In the years 2003-4, Castle used over 195,000 tons of alternative fuels to replace approximately 160,000 tons of coal in its kilns.

Energy has been recovered from scrap tires, Cemfuel (processed from the residues of recycled waste solvents) and Profuel (paper and plastic wastes not viably recycled in other ways). Now uniquely in the UK, Castle has introduced a biomass fuel, Agricultural Waste Derived Fuel (AWDF), which is meat and bone meal, produced by sterilizing and grinding abattoir waste. The company has permission to trial at its Ribblesdale site and received permission to do so at Ketton.

Markets in north Wales and north west of England are principally supplied from Castle’s Padeswood works. Projects have included the Conwy and Mersey tunnels and the Deeside Crossing.

Castle continues to use alternative raw materials prolonging the life of the company