Tackling the saga of the red river

IT'S the red river, whose ugly discolouration brings back memories of an industry long since gone. But now the ochre which stains Skinningrove Beck, in East Cleveland, is helping to preserve precious natural resources thanks to a University of Teesside project.

A team from the University's Clean Environment Management Centre (CLEMANCE), working with industry, has developed a way of extracting the ochre and recycling it for use in the cement industry. JOHN DEAN investigates.

The people of Skinningrove are used to their red beck, a legacy of the ironstone mines which were at their most numerous in the 1850s, but which gradually declined and have now all gone.

The red colour comes from ochre dissolved out of old mine workings, smothering everything in the stream. A treatment system had previously been installed to extract the ochre, but once it was full it stopped working and the river ran red again. Villagers, working through the community organisation Skinningrove Link-Up, called in Dr Richard Lord, from CLEMANCE's Bioremediation Programme, to see if he could find a way of easing the problem.

Richard, an expert at cleaning up old industrial sites for re-use, and Industrial Symbiosis Project Officer Christine Parry, have been working with waste disposal company Onyx to come up with a solution.

The answer was simple. Using specially designed bags to filter the water from the treatment system sludge, the team extracted solid iron oxide, so the filters work again to remove more ochre.

However, handling iron oxide is very difficult because when it is transported, it turns back into a liquid. Previously, it has tended to be used as a landfill because it is of so little use.

But under a programme run by Onyx, the Skinningrove iron oxide is being salvaged for re-use as a component of cement.

CLEMANCE Centre Manager Gareth Kane says: “Because the iron oxide is now being recycled, it means that the aggregates industry does not have to mine for new resources, which gives an added environmental benefit.”

Dr Lord adds: “In the 1850s, the area was the worldwide centre for iron and steel and the mines were part of that.

“Although the last mine closed in the 1960s, the red water continues to leach out of the underground workings, which is bad for the beck. It is unsightly, smothers everything, wildlife is affected, and local people say it blocks the sewers. Removing the iron oxide has a benefit all round, cleaning up the beck and protecting natural resources which do not need to be mined.”

CLEMANCE has been awarded £1.2m to extend its industrial symbiosis work helping companies find ways of reusing or recycling waste created during industrial processes, everything from un-needed sand to excess heat.

The organisation has been running an industrial symbiosis project in the Tees Valley for two years and the cash award from the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will expand it across the North East in collaboration with the Centre for Process Innovation. Four fulltime staff will be taken on.

The money has come from Defra's £284m BREW (Business Resource Efficiency and Waste) fund for the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, of which the North East will be an important part.

Environment Minister Elliot Morley said: "A wide range of industries, from manufacturers to retailers, can save literally billions of pounds a year by cutting waste and improving resource efficiency, often with little or no investment.”

The Tees Valley project has already proved its worth and has helped companies divert 50,000 tonnes of waste for other uses with a further 100,000 tonnes planned.

In one example, the team brought together the chemical and agricultural industies to demonstrate best practice in dealing with organic waste.

“The composting expertise of the local farming community has saved the chemical industry thousands of pounds a year” said Christine Parry, Project Officer for CLEMANCE's industrial symbiosis initiative. Christine is pictured with Dr Lord, and Dr Rahman Pattanathu, from CLEMANCE.

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