The Waste Hierarchy in action
Sabre Rail, based at Newton Aycliffe, have implemented an resourceful way of saving on their heating bills whilst also reducing the amount of wood waste to landfill and other disposal methods. Tim Hutchinson visited the site in November to discuss energy saving ideas with the operation manager Brian Capeling.
A wood burner was installed in order to heat the warehouse and operations areas. Great success has been demonstrated by the wood burner being the only source of heat in an estimated 20,000 ft squared factory, and that within 30 minutes of lighting the burner the heat can be felt around the entire workshop.
Sabre Rail initially used the burner as a stand alone heater for the first month after installation and it heated the whole workshop area without any ducting required. However, the heat generated is now further utilised through the installation of ducting which channels the heat to the paint spraying area where it is used to dry the rail carriage dampers and shock absorbers that Sabre Rail repair.
The wood burner is in a safe location allowing it to be easily maintained and managed carefully.
The stats
The wood burner operates for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and is replenished 3 or 4 times per day with waste timber. This equates to approximately six pallets per day, which in turn, assuming an average pallet weight of 20kg, equates to 37 tonnes of wood waste a year being diverted from disposal. This is an extremely beneficial way to recover energy from waste and also reduce heating bills which are set to rocket further in the near future.
The benefits
RPS generates approximately 20 tonnes of wood waste a month from excessively damaged pallets that are beyond repair. The majority is currently sent to a biomass energy recovery facility but it has been agreed between Sabre Rail and RPS that they will collect stillages of broken pallets from our site at Maltby, with the pallets ready-cut to size to reduce time spent at the Sabre Rail site preparing the pallets to fit the burner.
Scrap pallets wait to be used to provide valuable heat energy to the workshop
RPS intends to follow in the footsteps of Sabre Rail by installing our own wood burning heater. In a similar manner to Sabre Rail, RPS will duct the heat through the operational warehouses and also into the offices to help reduce our energy bills and recover energy from waste generated on site. It demonstrates the objective of RPS to work closely to the waste hierarchy by reducing waste and recover energy.
