Doran Consulting was commissioned by recycling and resource management specialists, SITA UK, to provide civil & structural design advice for the construction of a new materials recycling facility in Avonmouth, Bristol.
The development included a materials sorting and recovery facility, pre-processing plant, and a cutting edge waste-to-fuel conversion plant, utilising technology developed by ‘End of Life Plastic to Diesel’ specialists Cynar plc.
The Cynar plant will convert over 6,000 tonnes of non-bottle plastics, such as yoghurt pots and meat trays, into 4.2 million litres of specification diesel fuel. The diesel will be used for commercial resale and to power SITA’s own refuse collection fleet vehicles.
The project included design of a 65m clear span portal framed process building and the adjacent Cynar structure. The site is located in reclaimed brownfield land, which was heavily contaminated. This resulted in the use of a rigid inclusion piling system being adopted, supporting a granular load transfer platform and a high quality fibre reinforced concrete ground bearing floor slab. Other elements of the project included design of associated internal offices, reinforced concrete bunkers/ pits, an external fuel tank farm and process interfaces.
As lead consultant, Doran Consulting co-ordinated the structure to satisfy requirements of three separate process providers. We also provided civil engineering design advice for an extensive system of site roads and hardstandings. Due to poor ground conditions prevalent on the site, ground improvement in the form of cement/stabilisation was adopted throughout.