Chemical Industry

A late February afternoon and the Castner Kellner chemical plant at Runcorn is silhouetted against the Mersey estuary with the Stanlow refinery in the distance.

S.A. Cokeries et Houillères d'Anderlues first erected coke ovens in 1904 which were replaced by new ones in 1931. The works produced foundry coke and was one of the smallest and oldest coke by-product plants still operating in Belgium at the time of closure in November 2002.

This works was once owned by Joshiua Wardle and produced dyestuffs used by the Wardle dyeworks and elsewhere. These days it is operated by Tennants Fine Chemicals, a long established UK family owned private company. They produce aroma chemicals and acetate esters.

The limekilns and the chimneys of the CHP plant are reflected in the dragonfly pond at Anderton Nature Park.

On a fine sunny day BITH* and I took a stroll through the PQ (Philadelphia Quartz) Corporation plant adjacent to the Mersey at Warrington. This was once the Crosfield's soap works and today it continues to produce inorganic chemicals.

Soda ash production at the Brunner Mond works at Lostock.

Brunner Mond chemical works at Lostock near Northwich.

Coasters used to load soda ash here. Now the loading facilities lie mainly derelict, but the storage bunkers remain in use.

The Brunner Mond soda ash factory at Winnington viewed across the River Weaver from Anderton

Promens' Deeside factory specialises in the manufacture of industrial packaging for dangerous substances including chemicals such as agrochemicals, detergents, and lubricating oil. The main processes are extrusion blow moulding and injection moulding.

I have wanted to get out for a night shoot for a while and the weather today was ideal for a trip around the Brunner Mond plants in the Northwich area. Operated by E.ON UK CHP Ltd, the Winnington Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant in Northwich, Cheshire, is the largest such scheme in the UK. The scheme supplies a total of 400MW of steam to two Brunner Mond soda ash works, at Winnington and Lostock. Its 130MWe output also supplies the needs of the two sites. Located at the Brunner Mond's Winnington site, the main CHP plant consists of two gas turbines, two heat recovery boilers, a steam turbine and stand-by boiler capacity. The CHP plant supplies steam & electricity into the site systems. A proportion of the steam used is returned to the CHP plant as condensate. The fuel for the Winnington plant is natural gas which is supplied through an 11km underground pipeline from the National Gas Transmission System at Nether Tabley to the Winnington site. The Lostock site is supplied with steam from the Winnington CHP plant via two 5km over ground steam mains. Upon delivery to Lostock, some of the steam is passed straight to the site processes. The remainder of the steam is passed through a steam turbine located on the site, and in doing so generates more electricity before it is sent into the site processes. Again, a proportion of the steam used is returned to the CHP Plant as condensate via a pipeline.

Part of the Winnington soda ash plant silhouetted against the evening sky when viewed across the River Weaver from Anderton Nature Park.

Storage tanks at the AkzoNobel (Dulux) paint plant at Stowmarket. I really do hope that the colours inside match those outside.

The still extensive chemical works at Wilton viewed over Dormanstown.

Back in 2005 I attempted to get some shots of the four big limekilns at Brunner Mond's Lostock soda ash works. This is as near to the gate as I got before security was out shouting about no photography allowed. I didn't argue as the car park I was standing on is well inside the boundary of their ownership.

Prayon manufactures an extensive range of phosphate and fluorine products that are used in food applications, industrial applications, fertilizers and other applications such as pharmaceuticals. Their Engis plant sprawls alongside the Meause to the west of Liège.

This end of the Bosley Mills site is no longer in use by Wood Treatment International for their processing of a range of organic materials such as SoftWood Fibres, Olive Stones, Almond, Walnut and Coconut Shells for use in a wide variety of industries including explosives, thermoplastics, glucose production and effluent handling. The silos are empty and disused whilst the sheds are in other industrial uses.

Storage silos at the BP Ineos polypropylene plant at Westerlo.