WMW takes a detailed look at Veolia’s new waste to energy facility. Featuring an innovative wooden frame design combined with high tech materials the plant was designed by Jean-Robert Mazaud of S'pace Architects.
Designed by architect, Jean-Robert Mazaud of S'pace Architects, Veolia originally applied for planning consent for the facility back in 2012. Construction work at the site, a former wholesale market on the Cross Green Industrial Estate in East Leeds, began in 2013. It became fully operational in April last year and was officially opened at a ceremony on 15 November by HRH the Duke of Kent.
Dubbed the ‘Leeds Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility’, the plant processes residual waste from the ‘black bin’ collections through a using mechanical and optical separators, with recyclable materials including mixed plastics, mixed paper, cardboard, and metals including food and drink cans being removed.
Designed to handle around 214,000 tonnes of waste per year, it is hoped that in the future the facility will use a combined heat and power system to generate hot water and heating to local homes, buildings and potentially schools and hospitals in Leeds.
Built by Scunthorp based Clugston Construction, the plant is expected to save Leeds City Council around £200 million per year in disposal costs. “It allows us to divert black bin waste away from landfill and into environmentally-friendly further recycling or energy creation,” explains Leeds City Council’s executive member for environment and sustainability, Councillor Lucinda Yeadon. “This in turn means we save a considerable amount of cash for Leeds by not having to pay landfill fees.”
Design
The main part of the facility is a wooden-framed and glazed structure which also houses one of Europe’s largest vertical green living wall stretching some 1800m2 and covered in plants. The wall contains a range of plants both native and non-native selected for their appearance, hardiness and benefit to local biodiversity.
The building itself is 42 metres in height, 125 metres long and 35 metres wide. The chimney is 75m high, but the company says it has been kept deliberately slim-line. The plant also features a glass walkway and visitor centre.
Having recently won the Business in the Community’s Responsible Business of the Year Awasd, Veolia says that it is working closely with the local community and so far more than 80 visits from schools to community groups have taken place at the visitor centre, educating children and adults as to what actually happens to waste in Leeds.
According to Veolia the integration of sustainability elements and materials used, including rainwater harvesting and drainage techniques, and the use of timber, together with an extensive living wall and landscaping strategy with habitat creation to enhance biodiversity was key throughout the design. The company also implemented the National Building Specification for both materials and workmanship – am industry standard for civil building design.
“Traditionally they’re built with steel frames and steel cladding, traditional heavy materials. This to my knowledge is the first one that’s been built using sustainable material such as the timber frame, ” says Paul Gouland, marketing director at Clugston Construction.
The design scored 75.89% and a Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating of Good in the design stage assessment carried out under the 2008 version of BREEAM Bespoke. The company says that it also selected the construction materials for the plant using ‘cradle to grave’ concepts and with consideration for future maintenance requirements. It also used the rating system of the Green Guide to Specification when specifying materials.
Independent UK firm, Hope Construction Materials, supplied around 19,000m3 of concrete during the construction of the project from it Leeds plant approximately 1km from the site. The proximity of Hope’s plant to the project location was key to minimising vehicle movements and therefore the carbon footprint of the overall project. In addition, the cement used in the concrete contains a percentage of pulverised fuel ash (PFA), which the firm says helps to put a waste product to good use.
“Leeds City Council was keen to build a major waste processing facility which will have strong environmental return in the long term,” says Tim Goodall, area manager, Hope Construction Materials.
At its peak more than 200 construction workers, many from the local area, worked on the building and it now employs over 70 members of staff.
“We have created an iconic facility which is an attractive landmark for Leeds and more importantly a sustainable solution for the city’s waste for generations to come,” says Estelle Brachlianoff, senior executive vice president at Veolia UK and Ireland.
Process
Black bag waste arriving at the facility is processed using a variety of automated sorting technologies to extracts plastics, paper/ cardboard, ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as food and drink cans. According to Veolia around 20% of the waste arriving at the facility is recovered for recycling and as the operation of the facility develops, it hopes to separate other recyclates, further improving the overall recycling rate.
When all the recyclables have been removed the remaining waste is incinerated. The heat from the combustion process produces steam to power a turbine which generates around 11MW of electricity for export to the National Grid. The water used in the process is recycled.
The combustion technology for the plant was supplied by German waste to energy technology firm, MARTIN, and consists of a reverse-acting grate with three runs and a total width of 7.070m. The main contractor, French firm CNIM, provided the emission control systems and Finnish firm Metso provided the process control technology.
In addition to exporting electricity to the grind the facility also has the flexibility to generate thermal energy which Veolia hopes will be used to heat buildings and offices locally at some point in the future.
Bottom ash which can contain gravel-like remnants of glass, brick, stone, concrete and ceramics, will be recycled into construction aggregate, which replaces quarried material in the production of asphalt and cement.
The gases from the boiler are cleaned using technologies which neutralise acid gases, remove pollutants with ‘activated carbon’ and capture fine particles with a fabric filter. The gas treatment residues are kept in enclosed storage on site and then disposed of at a licensed facility.
Daily Average Emissions Limits for the plant are set as follows:
Dust (Particulates) 10mg/m3
Total Organic Carbon 10mg/m3
Hydrogen Chloride 10mg/m3
Carbon Monoxide 50mg/m3
Sulphur Dioxide 50mg/m3
Oxides of Nitrogen 200mg/m3
Leading the Way for Leeds
With 346,000 households in Leeds some 306,000 tonnes of waste is collected each year from homes, household waste sorting sites and other recycling sites across the city.
The city currently recycles around 40% of this.
However, the council has a goal to reduce waste, increase recycling and recover value. The creation of the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility at Cross Green is a part of that plan. While some have described the plant as a ‘dirty MRF’, the award winning facility is already reducing carbon emissions from the city’s waste equivalent to taking 29,000 cars off the road.
