Meat on the menu for Castle Cement

Meat is the latest alternative fuel for the UK cement industry. The Environment Agency this week granted Castle Cement permission to use meat and bone meal in its cement kilns.

The permission follows successful trials in using waste from the meat industry as an alternative fuel at Castle’s Ribblesdale works in Lancashire.

The six-month trial provided up to 50% of the heat needed for the cement making process and saved 8,000t of coal, the company said.

Castle has also applied for permission to trial the fuel at its Ketton works in Rutland.

Meat and bone meal is produced by sterilising and grinding abattoir waste. Castle said the fuel is fibrous and feels like damp sand.