Ellesmere Port Incinerator

The largest High Temperature Incinerator site in the UK, and one of the most advanced in Europe, is Veolia's Ellesmere Port Incinerator which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Ellesmere Port Incinerator
Site Location See HT & Clin → page for a larger UK Wide map.
Waste Licence	SP3409LC
Operator	Veolia
Operational Capacity	100,000tpa
Number of Lines	1
Region	North West

Annual Report Data

Year	Total In	Total Clinical	IBA Out	ACP Out	Op Hours
2019	66813	1487	3724	8117	6661
2018	57247	802	3123	7362	6190
2017
2020	70816	1652	6046	8049	7584
2021	59371	1252	4057	6024	6792
2022	71602	1228	0	0	7529

Picture of Veolia's Ellesmere Port - stock image - all rights reserved

Summary

The largest High Temperature Incinerator site in the UK, Veolia's Ellesmere Port Incinerator is a rotary kiln designed to treat hazardous waste and low level radioactive waste, and is one of the most advanced in Europe

Plant Description

Waste Reception & Storage

The facility operates a waste acceptance process which involves checking, sampling and computerised bar coding to ensure waste consignments are traceable through the disposal process. The site has 2,000m³ covered storage area for packaged waste that is ready for incineration. The facility is permitted to receive up to 100,000 tonnes per annum, although the annual report to the EA by Veolia indicates the actual tonnage received is lower than that permitted.

Shredder

The plant has a specialist shredder which is fully enclosed process to contain the material being processed. The process reduces the size of drums, IBCs and bulk bags to a paste, which is then sent to the rotary kiln via a mixer and pump system.

Rotary Kiln

The facility is based around a water-cooled rotary kiln which rotates at between one and six revolutions per hour, giving a waste residence time of between 30 and 90 minutes at a temperature of up to 1200°C. The slag that is produced, a form of IBA, flows to a water quench system to produce a inert, glass-like solid.

Secondary Combustion Chamber

Exhaust gases from the rotary kiln pass into the Secondary combustion Chamber, where liquid waste and oxygen is added to create a vortex. Residence time is in excess of 2 seconds, and temperatures of up to 1200°C are achieved to manage waste destruction.

Gas Cleaning and Scrubbing

Gases from the Secondary Combustion Chamber pass into a pair of gas heat exchangers, reducing the temperature to around 800°C, followed by quenching to 80°C to minimise the production of dioxins.

Gas Cleaning

Gases from the from the process pass through two scrubbing towers to remove hydrochloric acid, oxides of sulphur, bromine and some inert particulates. The gases then pass through a filter fabric. Lime is added to aid the filtration and the final particulates and residual acidity are removed.

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Waste Tonnage, By Origin

The table shows a list of the Waste for the Permit SP3409LC, that has arrived into sites as reported to the Regulator and then publicised in their reported statistics. The Data used is from the most recent returns. The total reported tonnage arriving at the site was: t.

Where this tonnage exceeds that reported in year of the corresponding annual report, this may be due to the following reasons:

• Tonnage may have been received but not incinerated, i.e. the material is held pending incineration (the operator return to the EA reports as received whereas the annual report focuses on when the waste is incinerated.)
• Material may have been received into the site but treated in some other way than incineration.
• Material may have been received on the but transferred out of site for disposal/treatment at another site rather than incineration on the site.

EWC Code	Origin of Waste	Tonnes In