The mission

To produce an alternative fuel from waste that can be used as a direct replacement for coal in CEMEX’s cement kilns

Our solution

We process non-recycled waste at our purpose-built facility in Rugby to produce Climafuel®. The facility creates a high-energy fuel from carefully sifted and shredded waste primarily from local authority waste collections, as well as from businesses across the Midlands, for use in cement production.

Under our 25‑year contract, we supply cement company CEMEX with up to 200,000 tonnes of Climafuel® a year for use in its nearby kiln.

The results

SUEZ diverts thousands of tonnes of waste away from landfill for our customers every year.

Producing Climafuel® from non-recycled household and business waste reduces CEMEX’s reliance on fossil fuel in cement production and provides SUEZ’s customers with a long-term sustainable solution for their waste materials.

CEMEX is able to replace coal with Climafuel® in cement production, significantly improving the company’s environmental performance.

Lee Needham, Operations Support and Inbound Process Manager, CEMEX said:

“The use of solid recovered fuel in cement kilns has become a well-established sustainable solution across the world, providing many environmental benefits. These include diverting waste material from landfill, reducing greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 and oxides of nitrogen. We are preserving the planets natural reserves of fossil fuel, which often travel long distances to get to our sites and co-processing the fuel means that there is no ash to dispose of, as it forms part of the final product, making a good circular economy solution.”

“The 25-year contract CEMEX has with SUEZ is a partnership which will ensure a long-term environmentally friendly outlet for much of the region’s domestic and industrial waste as well as provide a cost-effective alternative fuel to ensure the competitiveness of UK cement production, one of the leading manufacturing industries.”