CONTROVERSIAL Castle Cement today announced it wants to build a £4 million gas cleaning system after facing pressure to clean up its act.

The company is seeking planning permission for the system at its Ribblesdale plant in Clitheroe and bosses say it would remove 90 per cent of sulphur dioxide - the gas most likely to be smelled at ground level - emitted from a kiln.

It would also remove about half the amounts of dust and ammonia found in chimney gases.

Castle Cement recently faced pressure from the Environment Agency to reveal details of the clean-up operation they were ordered to carry out. At a press conference this morning, the company, which burns the controversial Cemfuel, said the project would be the first of its kind at a cement manufacturing plant in Britain.

The system is said to work like a giant washing machine, mixing kiln emissions with a combination of water and finely ground limestone.

Water will be recycled in cement manufacture and none will released into rivers, streams or underground aquifers, the firm said.

An application for planning permission has been lodged with Lancashire County Council, with the firm hoping to start work on the system next year, if permission is granted.

Ian Sutheran, general manager of the plant, said: "Castle Cement is the first company to seek to install this sort of equipment in the UK."

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