Displaying items by tag: Plant
Fiji: Pacific Cement has been forced to suspend production at its 0.1Mt/yr-capacity integrated Lami cement plant in Rewa Province following the issue of a stop order by the Department of Environment on 7 August 2020. Truck drivers employed by the company say that they are losing US$300/day as a result, according to the Fiji Times newspaper.
The Lami cement plant previously suspended operations subject to a stop order from the Department of Environment due to complaints about dust emissions on 7 December 2018.
India: Mangalam Cement has fully commissioned an 11MW waste heat recovery (WHR) unit at its integrated Morak plant in Rajasthan. About half of the capacity of the unit was previously commissioned in January 2020. Completion of the remaining portion was delayed from early 2020 due to coronavirus.
Dragon Products fined US$67,000 for air emissions breech
07 August 2020US: Dragon Products has been fined US$67,000 by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for exceeding air emissions regulations since 2013. Ammonia, carbon monoxide and particulate matter levels were all breeched, according to the Bangor Daily News newspaper. Other irregularities with standards were also noted, such as baghouse inlet temperature limits and clinker cooler opacity standards.
Japan: Taiheiyo Cement is starting large-scale recycling of large lithium-ion batteries at its integrated Tsuruga plant. It has been developing the process with Matsuda Sangyo since 2011 using exhaust gases from clinker production as part of dismantling, crushing and sorting processes to extract precious metals from the batteries. Taiheiyo Cement, its subsidiary Tsuruga Cement and Matsuda Sangyo started a recycling business in April 2020 following certification by the Japan Auto Recycling Partnership (JARP).
Kao Cement to invest US$287m on plant in Niger
05 August 2020Niger: The government has approved a project by Kao Cement to spend US$287m on a plant in the Tahoua region. The scheme is expected to create over 300 jobs, according to Agence Ecofin. Kao Cement is based in Niamey. A previous government scheme in 2017 looked for investors to build a 0.95Mt/yr cement plant in Kao.
BUA Cement grows sales and profits so far in 2020
04 August 2020Nigeria: BUA Cement’s revenue grew by 12.7% year-on-year to US$261m in the first half of 2020 from US$232m in the same period of 2019. Its profit after tax rose by 13.7% to US$89.8m from US$78.9m. In comments reported by the Daily Independent newspaper, Yusuf Binji, the managing director of BUA Cement said that, “In a bid to further drive cost efficiencies and sustainability, we entered into strategic alliances for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Kalambaina, Sokoto State and the management of our mining operations.”
The cement producer has a production capacity of 8Mt/yr. It plans to increase this to 11Mt/yr when it commissions a new 3Mt/yr plant in Sokoto State in 2021.
Germany: The Westküste100 green hydrogen project has received funding approval from the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs. The plan is backed by an investment of Euro89m, with Euro30m of this total approved for the project’s launch in August 2020. The initiative intends to produce green hydrogen, transport it in the gas network, use it in industrial processes and to interlink different material cycles within the existing infrastructure. The consortium brings together ten partners: EDF Deutschland, Holcim Deutschland, OGE, Ørsted Deutschland, Raffinerie Heide, Heide’s municipal utility, Thüga and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, along with the Region Heide development agency and the Westküste University of Applied Sciences.
“An electrolysis plant with a capacity of 700MW - this is our vision and the next milestone in implementing the development targets laid down in the national hydrogen strategy by 2030,” said Jürgen Wollschläger, managing director of Raffinerie Heide and coordinator of the Westküste100 project.
The funding approval enables work to begin on the first phase of the project, which is set to run for five years. A newly formed joint venture, H2 Westküste, comprising EDF Deutschland, Ørsted and Raffinerie Heide, is to build a 30MW electrolyser which will produce green hydrogen from offshore wind energy and provide information on the operation, maintenance, control and grid compatibility of the equipment.
In a later stage of the project hydrogen from both electrolysis and CO2 from a cement plant in Schleswig-Holstein will be used in the process. During the initial phase of the Westküste100 project preparations will be made for converting the Lägerdorf cement plant to an oxyfuel combustion process.
Thorsten Hahn, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Holcim (Deutschland) said, “For us, as a manufacturer of building materials, the funding approval is a key milestone on the way to decarbonising cement production. Now all of us involved in Westküste100 must move forward quickly, decisively and dynamically in order to achieve our ultimate goal of cross-sectoral coupling on a large industrial scale in the coming years.”
Italy: Italcementi and Calcestruzzi have supplied specialists and products, including 67,000m3 of concrete, for the Genoa-San Giorgio Bridge. The new structure has been built to replace the Morandi Bridge that collapsed in mid-2018. Products from the integrated Calusco d'Adda cement plant, the Novi Ligure grinding plant and Calcestruzzi’s concrete plants in Genoa supported the project.
China: West China Cement says that its subsidiary Yaobai Special Cement has agreed to buy a 97.5% share of Kangding Paomashan Cement for US$105m. Kangding Paomashan Cement is currently building a 1.5Mt/yr cement production line in the northwest of Ganzi Prefecture of Tibet. The new plant is intended to benefit from its location when the Sichuan-Tibet Railway project fully opens in 2021.
Thailand: Profits have risen at Siam City Cement due to cost cutting initiatives and lower energy prices despite disruption caused by government-related coronavirus responses. It also mothballed a kiln at its Saraburi plant in May 2020 to, “optimise resources and capacities corresponding to demand contraction across the region.” The group’s net sales fell by 10.9% year-on-year to US$679m in the first half of 2020 from US$792m in the same period in 2019. Its net profit rose by 6.2% to US$59.2m from US$55.8m.