Cleaning oil-contaminated soil at the Avenue

The Avenue Coke Works

• Processed coal to produce coke• Coke used as a smokeless fuel and in the

steel-making industry• Wastes from the process left behind

when the works closed in 1992

Treating oily waste

• Oily waste was just dumped into big ponds or lagoons

• The waste needs to be dug out and treated

Thermal treatment plant

• Treat soil contaminated with oily substances• Burns them off to leave mostly water and carbon dioxide

Thermal treatment

• Heavily contaminated soil is mixed with processed soil

• Gives soil of the correct ‘stickiness’ to go into the thermal treatment plant

Thermal treatment plant

• Soil enters a rotary kiln (rotating oven)• Heated to 600oC• Contaminants driven off as gases• Cleaned soil is cooled for re-use

Thermal treatment plant

• Gases are collected• Particulates filtered out• Gases burned at 1,200oC• Products are mostly carbon dioxide and

water

Thermal treatment plant

• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week• 270,000m3 of soil• Cover football pitch with a pile 54m high