Red Scar Works was built in 1939 by Courtaulds and produced continuous filament viscose rayon.
[1][2] The closure of the works was announced in November 1979 and the issue raised in the UK Parliament House of Commons by the constituency MP.
The main raw materials brought in by rail were coal, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, carbon disulphide and wood pulp.
The power station had two cooling towers and two large chimneys which were very visible points on the Preston landscape.
[7][8][9] This started by taking cellulose in the form of wood pulp and steeping in caustic soda solution.
The steeped wood pulp sheets were then shredded with Condux mills and the product (called alkcell short for alkaline cellulose) stored in bins at controlled temperature.
Other waste acidic streams were sent to the zinc recovery building where the liquors were passed into tanks containing ion-exchange resin.