Case Studies

A Chemical Storage and Transfer Solution Project for Essity’s new recycling plant in Prudhoe, Northumberland.

Customer Background

Essity, is a global health and hygiene company headquartered in Sweden with a turnover of €13bn, sales in 150 countries and its brands include Tena, Tork, Plenty, Bodyform & Cushelle.

Essity began a project in 2022, to replace their 50-year-old paper recycling plant in Prudhoe, Northumberland which was coming to the end of its working life, with a brand-new plant costing £30M. The facility’s new technology will reduce Essity’s energy consumption whilst allowing lower grade paper and board to be recycled and improving segregation of paper and metal. The new facility will also provide a
more attractive and safer working environment for employees whilst safeguarding long-term jobs in the area.

The development of the new site includes the construction of 4 new buildings including one to house the processing plant used in the recycling process.

Customer Requirement

Essity originally approached Chem Resist in November 2022, to look at the design, manufacture and installation of tanks to store the chemicals used in the recycling process. Sodium Silicate, Sodium Hydroxide and Hydrogen Peroxide are all used in the recycling process to clean the recycled paper.

The project demanded a storage tank for each of these chemicals, which would be positioned within a concrete bund, with the chemicals being drawn from the tanks across a pipe bridge and into the processing plant new building.

Project Requirement

Chem Resist worked with the Essity project team to refine the original specification to include a storage tank  in Spiral Wound Thermoplastic for the Hydrogen Peroxide as the original spec had used stainless steel. ChemiGuard Offload and Dosing Cabinets were also added to improve the safety of the offload and dosing  processes by preventing potential loss of containment incidents and protecting operators and the  environment. Colour coded doors were used to identify the different chemicals to help prevent cross  contamination.  

The project involved the product and services across all Chem Resist divisions and as part of our turnkey  project services the Grundfos dosing pumps specified by Essity were sourced and purchased on their  behalf and fitted within the ChemiGuard Dosing Cabinets. 

Products Supplied

• 1x 30m3 Spiral Wound Thermoplastic Storage Tank for Sodium Silicate with ladder and handrail with  ChemiGuard Offload Cabinet and Dosing Cabinets with green doors.  
• 1x 30m3 Spiral Wound Thermoplastic Storage Tank for Sodium Hydroxide with ladder and handrail and twin  heaters with ChemiGuard Offload and Dosing Cabinets with purple doors. 
• 1x 60m3 Spiral Wound Thermoplastic Storage Cabinet for Hydrogen Peroxide with ladder and handrail with ChemiGuard Offload and Dosing Cabinets with red doors. 
• All connecting HDPE pipework and on-site installation.  
• Essity placed the purchase order with Chem Resist in January 2023, with installation in Prudhoe finishing on  the 25th June 2024. The commissioning of the new plant is scheduled for 2025.
  

People Involved

Andrew Leach (Sales), Ian Ward (Project Engineering), Simon Ellis, Wayne Simpson and Jordan Rock  (Fabrication) and Tom Fretwell & Nick Watmuff (Installation)

Ian Ward, Project Engineer comments 

“The Essity project was a fantastic project for us to be involved in. The site was brand new, so we were able  to plan and work whilst making the most of the available space. Also, the client was a great communicator,  so the Teams and face-to-face meetings we had, emails and phone calls were all prompt and clear and any  information we needed from them was supplied accurately and in a timely manner. We were permitted  access to site whenever it was needed, so we visited 3 times; to kick the project off, to review the drawings  and a third time to do a crane survey.  

As the project involved transporting all the products to Prudhoe this was done across two days. On day one,  the ladders and ChemiGuards were delivered to site and on the following day the tanks arrived which were  then lifted into place in the new bunds. Then the tanks were installed, and the pipework connected  everything together. Installation took 2 weeks on site and was completed at the end of June 2024. It was a  really great project, one to be proud of.” 

Micheal Farrey, Project Manager for Essity 

“The Chem Resist team were really good to deal with, from initial sales enquiry to specification development, through to final design. We had completed a Hazop study, which steered our design decisions and Chem Resist advised us how to achieve the recommendations in the study. We received drawings to review in  good time and this process flowed through until final sign off. Once design was agreed, the Project manager  communicated well to plan and schedule delivery. The install of the tanks went to plan and then following this the Dosing pump and Tanker deliver cabinets were installed along with all process pipework. The Install  team came prepared with all relevant information, Design drawings, MS & RA and completed the work on  time to a high level of quality.  

In summary, an all aspects, it’s been a pleasure to deal with Chem Resist on this project and I would  recommend them.”