Canning complete second phase of Thornley Digester

Opened in January 2002, the ciVic® Municipal Waste Aerobic Digester based at Thornley, County Durham was built as a pilot project. Opened by the Prime Minister the project’s main aim was to transform household rubbish that would otherwise go directly to landfill, into useable composted soil improving media and separate out recyclable bi-products such as aluminium, steel, glass and plastics.
 
Originally funded by County Durham Environmental Trust (CDENT), the research and development iniative, it represented a major response to the governments challenge to increase the allocation of funds to sustainable waste management projects. It was constructed by Civic Environmental Systems Ltd (CES) of Sheffield and operated under contract by CDAD by Premier Waste Management Ltd (Premier). The second phase of the development was funded by Premier.

From the outset there was always the intention to develop the plant through phases, the throughput of the original pilot plant was licensed at 8000 tonnes/annum being limited by license conditions; following the proven reliability and performance of the plant the second phase was licensed for an increased throughput of 25,000 tonnes/annum To date the plant has cost in excess of £4 million and will change from development status to becoming a total commercial operation from April  2005. As a result of the success of this pilot plant, CES are now involved in a number of other projects; two of which are for Premier, which are in an advanced stage.

Canning Conveyor Co Ltd who originally supplied the complete conveyor equipment for the original plant, were again awarded the contract for the supply of the second phase conveying equipment by Civic Environmental Systems Ltd.
Canning Conveyor were responsible for undertaking the full design, manufacture and installation of the conveyors for the transportation of both shredded raw, and digested municipal solid waste (MSW) within the second phase of the system.

The patented ciVic® process takes raw, unsorted waste from domestic households; it is fed into a low speed, high torque shredder that cuts the waste into small pieces. The second phase of the project includes additional handling facilities and, a second digester tower. It is the digester tower that is the most integral and advanced part of the process. The tower works on the process of aerobic digestion and allows full control over each batch of material being processed. The process is fully computer controlled requiring manual input and has bespoke data acquisition system, which allows full traceability of all material batches processed, thereby giving assurance that the material is fully sanitised and pathogen free.
Canning supplied an inclined gantry feed conveyor 1800mm wide x 56.5m long which accepts waste directly from the shredder, this conveyor discharges onto a  channel frame transfer conveyor 1800mm x 5m long which delivers the waste stream onto a reversible transfer conveyor and then into the reception hatch of either the first or second digester tower.
The discharged material from the bottom of each tower is then fed via auger onto an a vibratory feeder and subsequently onto an inclined lattice conveyor 1800mm x 20.7 m long which feeds directly into a trommel.
After screening, the material is then discharged onto three 750mm x 14.5m long out loading radial conveyors which discharge into reception trailers.
All the conveyors have a capacity of 50 tph and are fitted with standard Canning conveyor parts; the main feed and transfer conveyors were fitted with Cannoflex nitrile conveyor belts.
Karl Shaw, manager of Civic Environmental Systems Ltd comments: "Canning Conveyor Co Ltd have worked closely with us on both phases of this development to provide belt conveying systems which form an integral part of the ciVic® process. The equipment and levels of service supplied by Canning have been to specification and extremely professional. We look forward to working with Canning on future installations."

Further information:   

Canning Conveyor Co Ltd,
Sandy Lane Industrial Estate, 
Sandy Lane,
Worksop,
Notts
S80 1TN  
Tel: 01909 486166
Fax: 01909 500638 
Email: sales@canningconveyor.co.uk
Web: www.canningconveyor.co.uk