The site
Former power station, Aberthaw, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.
The material
Approximately 18 million tonnes of legacy pulverised fuel ash (PFA) from coal-fired generation. With UK coal ash production finished, the stockpile is currently static even though it has the potential to provide significant quantities of high quality construction and industrial materials.
What we did
Hydrophis is delivering a paid characterisation service for CCR Energy, the site owner, under a Cardiff Capital Region government project. In August 2026 we ran a compositing campaign across the mound: twenty-four cored boreholes to 30–35 m, forty composites across five zones and three depth bands, and five laboratories selected line by line on matrix-specific accreditation, with an independent technical adviser overseeing the project.
What came out
The concluding report will provide CCR Energy with a site-specific resource statement: what elements and compounds are present, in what quantities and how they vary across the mound. That tells the owner how the ash can be converted into viable feedstock for sustainable industry. It adds to our library of measured feedstocks.
What it replaced
The default disposal route for legacy ash is landfill. Establishing what the material contains and what it is worth opens the option of reprocessing it into saleable products instead of paying for disposal.
At a glance
- Site
- Former Aberthaw power station, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales
- Client
- CCR Energy
- Resource
- Approximately 18 million tonnes of legacy pulverised fuel ash
- Contract
- Cardiff Capital Region government project
- Fieldwork
- August 2026 compositing campaign across the material
- Reports
- 2026
- Context
- Around 100 million tonnes of PFA stock across the UK, with coal based energy generation now ended
