Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) has signed a co-operation agreement with Al Safwa Cement Company for recycling carbon ash and use of oils and oil residues resulting from the burning of heavy fuel in power generation plants as an alternative source of energy instead of the previous method of landfilling.

This would save millions of riyals for SEC and support its ongoing efforts in preserving the environment, said the company in a statement.

Al Safwa Cement Company was established in 2007 at Jeddah in the western region of Saudi Arabia as part of El Khayyat Group, pioneers in the field of building materials in the kingdom.

Khalid Bin Abdulrahman Al Tuaimi, the executive vice president for the generation at SEC, said the objective of the agreement was to dispense with carbon ash projects at generating stations, which will achieve financial surplus of up to SR325 million ($87 million) during the period of the agreement, which extends to seven years.

He pointed out that SEC was the first company to adopt this environmental option, which is to co-operate with the cement company, after the approval of the recycling technology by the General Authority for Meteorology and Environmental Protection, especially as carbon ash contains high carbon ratio sometimes up to 85 per cent, while the cement plants need this ash as auxiliary fuel with heavy fuel, which is used in furnaces of cement factories.

"This would reduce the full dependence of the cement factory on heavy fuel, thereby reducing dependence on oil, which is a key element of the Kingdom Vision 2030 to restructure the national economy," stated Al Tuaimi.

SEC has four generating plants that produce large amounts of carbon ash equivalent to about 200,000 cu m a year.

The Jeddah South plant produces about 45,000 cu m, Al-Shuaibah plant about 47,000 cu m, the Rabigh plant 60,000 cu m and the Shuqaiq plant would produce 45,000 m annually in the future, he added.-TradeArabia News Service