Grundon Waste Management has made a further multi-million pound investment in pioneering carbon negative aggregate specialist Carbon8 Aggregates in order to help it meet increased demand from the booming Energy from Waste industry.
Stephen Roscoe, technical director at Carbon8 Aggregates
The deal, which has also seen a restructuring of Carbon8’s top management team, will enable the business to forge ahead with new development plans.
Grundon CEO Richard Skehens has moved into a new role as Carbon8 chairman, while Steve Greig, previously Carbon8’s finance and commercial director, steps up to managing director. Stephen Roscoe, Grundon technical director, has been appointed as technical director of Carbon8 Aggregates.
Grundon’s latest investment means Carbon8 can proceed with ambitious plans to build at least two new plants over the next two years, in addition to the recent construction of a £1.5 million second production line at its operation in Brandon, Suffolk.
Stephen Roscoe said: “This is an extremely exciting time for our business. We have already trebled production at Brandon to meet existing contracts and, with demand from EfW operators increasing all the time as they look for landfill alternatives, this allows us to respond positively to the market.”
Carbon8 has pioneered the development of the world’s first carbon negative aggregate, using patented technology to recycle waste flue gas treatment residues (FGT) produced by Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities and convert it into award-winning lightweight secondary aggregates used by the building trade.
The new material has won a string of industry accolades, including most recently the Sustainability Award at the Minerals Product Association’s British Precast Best Practice Awards.
Richard Skehens, said: “Grundon recognises Carbon8’s huge potential for growth and is pleased to be able to invest in the business to help take it up to the next level.”
FGT from Grundon’s Lakeside EfW plant at Colnbrook, in Berkshire, a joint venture with Viridor, already goes for processing at the Brandon facility and Carbon8 is currently in talks with a number of other major EfW operators.
Plans are already well under way for a second Carbon8 plant in Avonmouth, as well as a third facility in the North West, and discussions are ongoing to look at potential operations in Europe.
With no emissions and no waste, Carbon8’s solution for dealing with FGT is set to revolutionise the way the EfW industry deals with its disposal. Until now, operators have had to use tightly-regulated landfill facilities or bury it in salt mines.
With the Environment Agency and Defra due to report in the autumn about potential changes to regulations governing the landfill disposal of treated FGT residues, Roscoe says the industry needs to recognise the benefits that Carbon8’s processing system provides.
“We have the only viable recycling solution for FGT, it’s a safe and proven technology which is more than capable of meeting the growing demand for residue treatment driven by the boom in the EfW industry,” he said.
“It’s a win-win situation for EfW operators and construction companies and is good for the environment because it diverts waste from landfill, provides permanent capture of carbon dioxide and also helps fill the gap left by the increasing shortage of natural aggregates.”
Through its patented Accelerated Carbonation Technology, Carbon8 uses waste carbon dioxide to treat and bind components within the FGT, rendering the material inert and turning it into a pelletised aggregate product which is both environmentally benign and complies with the Environment Agency’s strict end of waste protocol.
A number of leading national construction companies are already using Carbon8’s aggregates to produce lightweight building blocks, and the material is attracting a huge amount of interest in the pre-cast sector for applications such as screed, kerbstones, drainage pipes and garden ornaments.
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