Based in County Somerset, south-west England, the plant has been supplying the construction industry with building material for more than 60 years. It uses large quantities of gas to heat and dry the 250,000tonnes of asphalt produced each year, and as the site is active 24/7, maintaining a constant, reliable supply of fuel plays a vital role in hitting production targets and meeting customer demand.
The site is located off the mains gas grid, and after seeing an opportunity to reduce both emissions and fuel bills, Aggregate Industries approached Calor about working together on a new heating solution.
“We made the switch to LNG because it is a cleaner source of energy,” says Simon Evans, plant manager.
“We were previously using kerosene, but LNG is a more cost-effective product to burn. It also produces a lot less carbon, and reducing our carbon footprint is very important for Aggregate Industries.”
As well as substantially cutting fuel costs, the project is said to have reduced the amount of CO2 emitted per tonne of asphalt produced at the site by 17%. This cuts Aggregate Industries’ annual emissions by 1,800 tonnes.
The site is the first asphalt plant in the UK to use LNG and only the second in the entire world. It also represents Calor’s first turnkey LNG installation in the UK.
The commissioning project began in January 2015 and was completed in May, and as well as laying new pipework and converting the site’s 16MW burner to run on LNG, Calor installed a 90m3 tank and a pair of vaporisers each capable of converting 2,000m3 of gas/hour.
