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A recent article in The Telegraph interestingly highlighted many of the issues affecting the manufacturing sector that the RVA Group witnesses on a daily basis through our decommissioning work worldwide.

Whilst confidence does seem to be growing there are still manufacturers facing incredibly tough decisions as to what to do with idling and redundant plant and we urge them to take a very close look at all the options available – innovative end-of-life asset management can bring many positives.

We are all aware that unprecedented pressures have been placed on chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies across the globe, and that unfortunately very few have proven recession-resistant. Some have consolidated their activities in a bid to work smarter from a smaller number of locations, whilst others have mothballed, rationalised or permanently closed down their sites.

The challenge for plant owners, managers and engineers is how to proceed with the safe and cost-effective management of their redundant assets, whilst minimising any environmental impact.

Operators often assume that there are limited options when closing a facility and many simply ask a local contractor for a ‘demolition’ price, before deciding whether to proceed with the exercise or not. Naturally plant owners wish to avoid abortive or non-essential spend yet delaying projects that are deemed unaffordable is not always the most appropriate solution. They will inevitably have to be tackled at a later date and in most cases at an overall increased cost due to continuing liabilities such as hazardous material containment, security provisions, regulatory compliance feed, care and maintenance costs, plus the burden of unavoidable overheads such as local authority building rates.

Other companies may initially try to sell their plant in-situ in an attempt to pursue a relatively ‘pain free’ site exit and where possible protect employees’ jobs. But in truth this course of action may not result in the highest possible commercial outcome, and if a buyer is not found processing firms may struggle to know what to do next.

Difficulties lie in making well-founded decisions about the future, especially at a time when pressures are mounting or there are knowledge gaps. Specialist tools such as feasibility studies therefore play a crucial role in the development of safe yet commercially sound redundant asset management plans.

The concept of the feasibility study is not new. For decades it has been regarded as a useful investigative exercise that generates reliable site and plant-specific data from which informed decisions can be made. But its widespread application is rapidly increasing, predominantly due to its ability to present previously unexplored solutions for even the most complex of plant closure projects.

By assessing every risk and exploring every opportunity these strategic management tools remove an element of the unknown and provide an insightful starting point from which value-adding business decisions can be made.

Leaders in cast iron technology Saint-Gobain PAM UK for example had initially thought that the cost to deplant and demolish its former Central Melting Plant and adjacent Hallam plant in Ilkeston would be excessive and prohibitive. Yet having ceased production in 2006 the mothballed heavy industrial posed a number of ongoing security and safety issues, therefore a series of feasibility studies was carried out investigate and cost the different solutions available to Saint-Gobain.

A number of opportunities were identified and it became apparent that the safest and most financially gainful solution was complete clearance of the site, which would generate sufficient funds from scrap materials to cover project costs and actually be cash generative.

Of course every project is different, however the goal should always be to maximise the return on assets where possible and safe to do so. It all comes back to the same thing – knowledge is power. Therefore informed and considered project strategies that involve the right people with the right engineering skill-set and experience, will help to ensure a safe, fully-integrated and professional approach, not to mention legislative compliance.

RVA Group is delighted to announce that it has opened a branch in Singapore. Whilst the specialist engineering consultancy has previously worked on the Asian continent, this is its first operational foothold in the region.

Commenting on the company’s expansion, managing director Richard Vann said: “The Asian economy is vibrant and highly regulated, and therefore offers a number of significant opportunities for us in our core market sectors of chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, energy, oil and gas decommissioning.

“Since our inception in 1992 we have been very carefully planning the expansion of the business and the recent acceleration of our international growth is a testament to the expertise of our exceedingly hard working team. Opening in Singapore reinforces our commitment to enhancing the effective business relationships we have already with leading multinational blue-chip organisations in the region, and we look forward to establishing many more new ones too.

“RVA is dedicated to building knowledge-based partnerships wherever we are working in the world. Our aim is to develop totally safe, environmentally secure, legislatively compliant, cost-effective decommissioning regimes and to achieve that we devise bespoke team structures utilising local knowledge and resources. This approach, coupled with on-site methodologies, is the most effective way of tackling even the most challenging projects.”

RVA is also currently managing a number of complex, high-hazard decommissioning, decontamination, dismantling and demolition projects in North America and Europe.

RVA Group’s industry leading stance on all things environmental caught the eye of recycling magazine LAWR (Local Authority Waste and Recycling). Here we share with you the resulting article outlining Matthew Waller, RVA Group EHS manager’s, opinion on the extent to which the demolition industry has embraced the much-debated ‘closed loop’ concept.

To the uninitiated, demolition may appear a somewhat rugged industry, but in truth it is a structured discipline and long-standing champion of the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ philosophy. Environmental commitment lies at the heart of the industry, and has done for quite some time. The majority of professional demolition projects achieve a 96-97% recycling rate as standard, with the bulk of materials being recovered and reprocessed. Metals and glass for example can be recycled with ease, but as technologies develop and environmental awareness continues to grow, an increasing number of reuse opportunities exist too. Hardcore concrete and brick materials for instance can be crushed to produce an engineered aggregate for re-use in the construction industry, and expensive plastic pipe work can be salvaged and sold for reinstallation.

The great thing about the demolition profession though is that responsible consultants and contractors do not stand still. A number of factors continue to influence and improve the waste management practices that are developed and adopted on site including legislative pressures, external costs such as landfill tax and technological developments. This is in addition to demands from clients who are quite rightly keen to protect their corporate reputation and uphold their own ‘green’ policies.

As a result, standards of environmental excellence continue to grow. Man made mineral fibres that have traditionally been sent to landfill are now being sorted, segregated and recycled, and wood is carefully assessed so that high end material is re-used whilst lower-specification wood is processed for the biomass industry.

Recovering materials and contributing to energy from waste projects goes some way to supporting the closed loop, but there is more to be done. In our role as an industry consultant we must assume at least partial responsibility for heightening the discipline’s understanding of the exciting closed loop concept.

The current problem is perhaps the fact that a discrepancy exists between what people perceive to be a closed loop economy and what the closed loop actually is.

Waste minimisation and recycling is thankfully on the radar of many industries, but to truly reap the resource efficiencies of the closed loop, waste must move much further up an organisation’s strategic hierarchy.

Over time demolition professionals, clients and other parties in the value chain must increasingly view ‘waste’ materials as resources that have a future use. The priority should be to redeploy these resources so that they never become ‘rubbish’.

Thankfully, progress is being seen in this respect. Gone are the days when only office furniture is removed from a site prior to demolition. Now entire processing plants that may be deemed ‘redundant’ by one organisation are being carefully dismantled for resale, relocation and re-erection elsewhere. If this is not wholly viable then, with the right skill-set, it is possible to identify and salvage individual elements of plants such as equipment vessels for installation in other processing facilities.

The crucial point about this whole process is that such considerations take place at the commencement of a demolition project when feasibility and option studies are being conducted and methodology statements prepared. In other words, resource efficiency is not an afterthought – it is a priority from the outset. Along with safety, it underpins the project design. Not only does this achieve environmental benefits but in the large part it is financially advantageous for the client too.

Even this extensively considered approach does not wholly satisfy the closed loop philosophy, because resource efficiency considerations that will come to fruition at the end of a plant or structure’s life, should ideally be factored in when such facilities are first constructed. Yet, this approach highlights just how committed the demolition discipline is to the country’s environmental agenda – something the industry’s professionals have known for some time.