Displaying items by tag: GCW390
Aggregate Industries, Innovatium and the University of Birmingham work on liquid air energy storage system
05 February 2019UK: A consortium comprising Aggregate Industries, Innovatium and the University of Birmingham has gained funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to test a liquid air energy storage (LAES) energy efficiency technology under the government’s Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) programme. The IEEA programme, administered by the Carbon Trust on behalf of BEIS, will provide nearly Euro0.4m towards delivering a new compressed air system utilising LAES technology from initial laboratory testing to full operation at Aggregate Industries’ Bardon Hill quarry in Leicestershire.
PRISMA (Peak Reduction by Integrated Storage and Management of Air) by Innovatium is a LAES technology that stores energy in liquid air form to provide compressed air, allowing inefficient partially loaded, variable-demand compressors to be turned off, thus improving the total system efficiency by up to 57%. The PRISMA system will bring together a latent energy cold storage tank, filled with a phase change material (PCM) to store thermal energy, and a number of other off-the-shelf components to form a system that will work with Aggregate Industries’ existing compressed air network. The research group says that the integration of the equipment and components in an industrial setting, for the provision of compressed air, has never been attempted before.
“The project will help to address the ‘energy trilemma’ of managing energy efficiency, energy cost and energy security by: significantly improving the energy efficiency of our compressed air system; managing electricity costs by running the compressors out-of-hours, when electricity is cheaper; and helping to smooth and reduce the peak electrical demand on site. We are therefore very excited to be the first industrial partner to install the PRISMA system at our Bardon Hill quarry in Leicestershire,” said Richard Eaton, Energy Manager at Aggregate Industries.
The 24-month project will involve the development of the PCM at the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering as well as the design, manufacture and assembly of multiple system components by Innovatium before installation of the system at Bardon Hill. The PRISMA Project has currently only been deployed in a simulated environment. Following successful delivery of the project, this scalable technology has multi-sectoral applications for compressed air systems both in the UK and globally. In the UK, the compressed air market is estimated at 1.3GW of installed electrical capacity across around 4500 sites and over 55,000 individual compressor units.
JSW Cement to upgrade Salboni grinding plant in West Bengal
04 February 2019India: JSW Cement plans to increase the production capacity to 3.6Mt/yr at its Salboni grinding plant in West Bengal. The unit has a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr at present, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The cement producer plans to strengthen its presence in eastern India starting with West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand. The plant manufactures Portland Slag Cement and it hopes to tap into local demand for this product with the upgrade.
Oman: Raysut Cement has signed an agreement with Ayoki Engineering for upgrading its clinker cooler line three at its Salalah plant. The local engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor will source the equipment from Germany’s IKN, according to the Muscat Daily newspaper.
The existing grate cooler at the unit will be replaced by a 4000t/day IKN Pendulum clinker cooler with a guaranteed capacity of 3500t/day clinker production. The project scope includes related civil works, supply and installation works of mechanical and electrical works. Sourcing and installation of the refractory will also be under the responsibility of Ayoki Engineering through IKN. Final installation of the project is planned for the fourth quarter of 2019.
Aïn Touta Cement buys filter for plant
04 February 2019Algeria: The Aïn Touta Cement (SCIMAT) plant near Batna has spent US$10m on a new filter. The investment is part of a group of improvements intended to increase production at the unit in 2019, according to Le Courrier d'Algérie newspaper. The company is also implementing a new integrated administration system.
JK Cement’s income falls as expenses rise
04 February 2019India: JK Cement’s income has fallen due to growing raw material, power, fuel and freight costs. Its income fell by 27% year-on-year to US$24.5m in the nine months to 31 December 2018 from US$34.2m in the same period in 2017. Its expenses rose by 2.5% to US$456m from US$445m. Its revenue increased by 1.4% to US$481m from US$474m. Additional costs also arose during the reporting period from an US$18,000 fine levied by the Competition Commission of India in August 2018. The cement producer is challenging the penalty.
Peruvian cement consumption expected to grow by 6.5% in 2019
04 February 2019Peru: Research from Scotiabank forecasts that cement consumption will grow by 6.5% in 2019 due to construction sector growth. The market will be supported by both private and public investment, according to the Gestión newspaper. Private investment will be supported by the mining industry. Infrastructure projects including Line 2 of the Lima Metro, the expansion of the Jorge Chávez Airport, the Port of San Martín, the Port of Salaverry and others are expected to support public investment. Local consumption of cement grew by 3.7% year-on-year in 2018, the highest rate of growth since 2013.
Nepal becomes self-sufficient in cement
04 February 2019Nepal: Dhrubaraj Thapa, the chairman of the Nepal Cement Producers’ Association, says that the country has become self sufficient in cement production. Local producers are expected to start exporting cement in the next financial year, according to the Himalayan Times newspaper. The country produced 9Mt of cement in the 2017 – 2018 financial year from a production capacity of 13Mt/yr.
CNBM and Fives sign collaboration agreement
01 February 2019China/France: China’s CNBM and France’s Fives have signed a cooperation frame agreement for future collaboration. The cement plant equipment manufacturers will explore projects together, in plant upgrade, plant expansion and new plants to implement Fives technologies, such as the FCB Horomill grinding system, the FCB Pyro-line and Pillard burners on an international basis. The signing ceremony of the agreement took place in late January 2019 bringing together Song Zhi Ping, the chairman of CNBM and Frédéric Sanchez, the president of Fives.
LafargeHolcim closes divestment of Holcim Indonesia
01 February 2019Indonesia: LafargeHolcim has closed the divestment of its Holcim Indonesia. It has sold its 80.6% share of the subsidiary to Semen Indonesia for US$1.75bn. The deal was first announced in November 2018. The company said that the proceeds from the sale would ‘significantly’ improve its net debt to recurring earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio by 0.2 with the target of two times or less to be achieved by the end of 2019. LafargeHolcim has been targeting divestments as part of its Strategy 2022 initiative.
ACICO Cement orders mill from Cemengal
01 February 2019Kuwait: ACICO Cement has ordered a second cement grinding mill from Spain’s Cemengal. The main equipment to be included in the contract includes a 5200 Kws ball mill with all the peripheral equipment from Cemengal and a fourth generation classifier from Magotteaux XP4i-130 for high strength cements. The projected grinding capacity will be 1Mt/yr of cement and the plant will be commissioned within the first half of 2020.
The project scope will include full engineering and complete supply of mechanical, process, electrical and automation equipment as well as the steel manufacturing from the raw materials handling areas up to the cement silos discharge. Site supervision, training and& commissioning will also be provided by Cemengal.