newhaven incinerator

we were very lucky to go on a homeschool tour of newhaven incinerator where a lot of my questions were answered....they were lovely, accommodating people and if anyone else is curious, they are having an open day on wednesday 17 april

the view from their conference room

mummy all decked out ready for the smelly tour

a little fact

lottie (a bit shy)

the flight simulator chairs that operate the crane

ground control

lottie and lauramay pestering paul

the furnace

doesn't this look like a giant proton pack?

the giant claw

the view from the centre of the plant

the chimneys

the view up from the centre

the base of the chimneys

the fan

the silos for apc

waste is brought to the plant and deposited down chutes where it is grabbed and put into shredding machines...the shredded waste held in bunkers (holding 4000 tonnes) then burnt at 850c in the furnace...the heat it generates goes to heat water tubes to produce steam, this steam is captured and pressurised and sent to the turbine...the turbine converts it to mechanical energy for a generator and then sent onto the national grid...the waste ash is taken by train to a facility that makes aggregate for road building....the nasty gases that come from burning plastics (called apc) are injected with lime (an alkaline) then sent to aldridge and mixed with acid to produce something inert that is then buried in an old salt mine in cheshire (minosis) 3 miles underground...only water vapours are emitted from the chimneys

east sussex is one of the best counties in the uk for waste management...the county produces 400,000 tonnes of waste a year (enough to fill wembley stadium) and newhaven deals with 200, 000 of it producing 16 megawatts of energy which is enough to provide electricity for 25000 homes

the newhaven plant is 27m high and the chimneys are 65m high...the building goes 20m underground at the site of the bunker and furnace (this was achieved by constructing this part of the plant at ground level then dropping it into place 20m down then draining away the river water) otherwise the plant would have been 20m taller and they would not have got building permission...it employs 34 staff to run the plant

veolia are a french company which promotes recycling by providing 14 recycling centres in east sussex...all the materials collected at these sites are taken to the hollingdean facility for sorting and baling and sold on....1300 tonnes are handled every month...they also have a compost facility at woodlands for green waste (collected at recycling centres and in your green bin)...this waste is heated and stored for over 8 weeks to ensure all bugs are killed etc...it is then bagged and sold as Pro-Grow, a soil enhancer