Aberthaw Power Station, located on the coast of South Wales, was decommissioned in 2020 after some 60 years of producing coal-fired power. The site was acquired by CCR Energy, whose vision is to transform it into a hub of innovation, sustainable energy, and community development. The plant is currently undergoing a several year demolition process.
Pulverised Fuel Ash, also known as Fly Ash around the world, is the fine ash produced during the combustion process driven out with flue gases and captured using electrostatic precipitators. This byproduct was previously considered waste and deposited in landfill. At Aberthaw Power Station, the PFA was deposited to the east of the power station which, over the years, became a stockpile of artificial ground up to 50m thick.
Pulverised fuel ash is now recognised a construction material that can be used in a variety of building materials such as grout, cement, filler, and waste stabilisation via a WRAP Protocol. The properties of fly ash are highly variable and dependant on the chemical composition of the coal used in production. CCR Energy have begun research into the recycling and re-use of the existing PFA at Abethaw.
We were engaged to lead the site investigation which comprised the drilling of 24 boreholes to ~35m depth in accordance with BS5930:2020 and BS10175:2017. Sonic drilling was selected as the most appropriate method of extraction to achieve the best recovery. Sonic drilling uses sonic vibration to progress the barrel, and to extrude it into plastic liners. We worked with Geosonic on the investigation, and 3 rigs were utilised to achieve the aims with speed and efficiency.
Aberthaw is a site of significant interest for sustainable redevelopment, and projects like this allow us to explore ways to transform legacy industrial sites into opportunities for the future. Earth Science Partnership (ESP) said, “ESP have been working on remediation and reclamation schemes across Wales for over 30 years and we’re pleased to assist with the Aberthaw project which will bring positive redevelopment to another South Wales legacy industrial site.”
The 1.5m cores were transported to the logging shed where a dedicated lighting setup was used to weigh, photograph, and log the PFA before it was sampled, labelled, and weighed again. All the recorded information, and prepared samples, were passed to CCR Energy for the next stage of research.
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Get in touch with our team via our email, enquiries@earthsciencepartnership.com or phone number, 02920 813385 and we’ll be very happy to help with and discuss any geotechnical engineering project requirements you may have.
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