Secondary Liquid Fuel (SLF) is made from industrial liquid wastes that can’t be recycled, such as paint thinners, inks and varnishes. These are blended to a strict specification that smells a bit like paint and looks like engine oil.

Every year the UK generates large volumes of industrial liquid wastes that are non-recyclable and disposed of in specialist landfills or incinerated without energy recovery. By using SLF CEMEX recovers energy from waste that would otherwise be lost to landfill.

The use of SLF does not affect emissions or air quality and has been tried and tested in cement kilns in the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Chile and the US.

The use of SLF helps CEMEX tackle rising energy costs, lowers greenhouse gas emissions and make fossil fuels last longer to benefit future generations.

In 1993, CEMEX’s Barrington cement plant was granted a permit to trial SLF. Following a successful trial, the plant was granted a permit to use SLF permanently in 1995.

SLF is also been used successfully at CEMEX’s cement plant in South Ferriby since 2002, where it has reduced emissions of sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen by 15% compared to using fossil fuels alone.

In this section

• The UK's waste problem
• Alternative fuels trial process
• About Climafuel
• About tyres
• Alternative fuels in Germany