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WSG complete toxic waste removal project at landmark former steelworks

Industrial services specialist, Well Services Group (WSG), have successfully completed a workscope to remove dangerous and hazardous materials from the former Redcar Steelworks in North Yorkshire.

Regarded as one of the largest decommissioning projects in Europe, WSG had to adopt new methods of product and waste removal to safely handle toxic substances which for the last seven years have remained undisturbed in tanks and piping systems.

The former British Steel headquarters, which was mothballed in 2015, is being transformed to become part of the 4,500 acre Teesworks Freeport and renewables sector industrial hub.

WSG’s Industrial Services experts were mobilised to Teesworks’ Southbank Coke Ovens to complete Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH), removing pyrophoric material from the coke ovens’ distribution lines.

This type of hazardous work is usually carried out during site shutdowns while a plant is still online and operational, but due to the abrupt closure of the site in 2015, dangerous materials have lay dormant onsite.

WSG Project Manager, Mark Loades, said: “The Redcar site was shut down more than seven years ago with all of the COMAH products being left in the tanks and pipework, making this project unique within the industrial services industry.

“New methods of product and waste removal were required to accommodate the site operator’s and demolition contractor’s cleaning and decontamination requests, and it was a challenge that our industrial cleaning specialists met head on.

“This was an extremely difficult scope of work to complete due to the need to wear full face breathing apparatus and chemical suits, the dark and secluded location, and also due to the dangerous and toxic chemical makeup of the product, which included benzine, sulphur, naphthalene, toluene, and xylene.”

Commissioned by demolitions experts Thompson of Prudhoe, the project was completed on schedule and with no incidents, with WSG devising innovative task-specific procedures to enable the work to be completed safely and efficiently.

During the project multiple storage tanks, and more than 7,000 metres of system pipework ranging from 2” to 102” diameter, were decontaminated. The hazardous products removal included heavy fuel oil, pyrophoric coke oven gas dropouts, petroleum oil, tar thinners, creosote oil, benzol absorbing oil, naphthalene, phlegm oil, virgin ammonia liquor, and liquor tar.

The successful completion of the decontamination project led to WSG being appointed Thompson’s preferred industrial cleaning contractor, which has opened up new opportunities for further work on the Teesworks site at the Redcar Blast Furnace and Redcar Coke Ovens.

Mark Loades added: “All of these products fell under the COMAH license and bought new challenges to not only remove them safely from the tanks and piping systems but to also remove them from the site. We have had to be creative and approach this job differently from a standard shutdown, while adhering to strict environmental laws, recycling, and waste management procedures.”

As part of the global WSG group and with its UK headquarters in Normanton, near Leeds, the Industrial Services division provide high-pressure and ultra-high-pressure water jetting, hydro abrasive cutting, confined space entry, tank and pipeline cleaning, heat exchanger cleaning and waste management services.

WSG’s European Regional Director, Steve Jones, said: “Many valuable lessons have been learned during this project which has strengthened our extensive track record on difficult cleaning and waste removal workscopes. It positions WSG to play a lead role in future demolition workscopes at Teesworks and on other major industrial sites across Europe.”

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WSG completed complex toxic waste removal programme at former Redcar works

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Formed in The Netherlands in 2005, WSG is a global provider of well intervention, process pipeline and industrial services and valve services to the onshore and offshore international oil and gas and petrochemical industries.

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