Resource management company Veolia has expanded the solvent recovery capacity at its Garston, Liverpool, facility to 86,000 tonnes a year.
Effective recycling of these used solvents, waste paint thinners and solvent-based paint, will create new products as an alternative to virgin solvents, says the firm, so that they can be used again in industries including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, paint, agrochemicals and cement manufacture.
The solvent recovery process will also save an estimated 172,000 tonnes CO2e in greenhouse gas emissions each year, compared to virgin resources. It was announced as part of the firm’s new strategic plan GreenUP,
Waste materials are processed at the site to regenerate them into high quality recycled products that can be reused displacing virgin materials in the supply chain. The facility uses various distillation technologies to separate residues from the wastes, and then to further separate solvent mixtures into products suitable for industrial customers.
As well as generating products the plant also produces several types of fuel. A distilled product fuel is used instead of natural gas to power the site’s steam boilers, reducing the energy required from gas by 10,000 MWh per year, equivalent to the gas usage of 1,000 homes per year. Other by-products from the process are sent to Veolia facilities to be manufactured into alternative fuels for use in the cement industry, helping to decarbonize this industry and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.
The increased processing capacity has been achieved by installing new distillation columns to separate liquids, and 17 tanks to store or transfer the solvents. Transport is handled through two new high throughput tanker loading bays which manage logistics for offloading waste for processing, and load the recycled solvents ready for customer delivery.
