Displaying items by tag: Plant
France: Hoffman Green Cement Technologies has launched an initial public offering (IPO) to raise Euro50m on the Euronext Growth market. The company wants to use the funds to build two new plants with a capacity of 0.25Mt/yr in Vendée and in the Paris region, according to the Le Figaro newspaper. Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies inaugurated its pilot plant at Bournezeau, Vendée in 2018. The unit is developing cement products using flash-calcined metakaolin and blast-furnace slag.
Eurocement receives nine new dump trucks from Volvo
02 October 2019Russia: Eurocement has received nine new Volvo FM 8x4 heavy-duty dump trucks for its Kavkazcement and Maltsovsky Portland Cement plants. The vehicles have a capacity of 32t and include Volvo’s CareTrack telematics system. The cement producer hopes to increase the volumes of limestone it transports from each plant’s quarries by 15%. It has spent Euro1.3m on the new trucks.
Kant Cement upgrades packing plant
01 October 2019Kyrgyzstan: Kant Cement has upgraded its packing equipment at its integrated plant. Russia’s Vselug supplied a Turbo K8 filling machine and Germany’s Berg provided compressors, according to Cement and its Applications magazine. The company plans to sell at 60% of its products in 25kg and 50kg following the upgrade.
The plant has also been installing general upgrades at the site, including a new combination burner from Austria’s Unitherm Cemcon in 2018. It is also planning to upgrade an electrical distribution substation by the end of 2019 to reduce interuptions to production.
HeidelbergCement buys Pennsylvania Keystone plant
27 September 2019Germany/US: HeidelbergCement has purchased Giant Resource Recovery’s 1.2Mt/yr integrated Keystone cement plant in Bath, Pennsylvania for US$151m. HeidelbergCement CEO Bernd Scheifele has called the cement plant, which has 90 years’ experience as a supplier to the Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey markets, ‘an excellent strategic addition’ to the company’s North American market presence.
Dalmia Cement takes steps towards carbon capture
25 September 2019Dalmia Cement threw down the gauntlet this week with the announcement of a large-scale carbon capture unit (CCU) at one of its plants in Tamil Nadu, India. An agreement has been signed with UK-based Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (CCSL) to use its technology in building a 0.5Mt/yr CCU. The partnership will explore how CO2 from the plant can be used, including direct sales to other industries and using the CO2 as a precursor in manufacturing chemicals. No exact completion date or budget has been disclosed.
The move is a serious declaration of intent from the Indian cement producer towards its aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2040. Dalmia has been pushing its sustainability ‘journey’ for several years now hitting targets such as reaching 6Mt of alternative raw materials usage in its 2018 financial year and reaching a clinker factor of 63% at the same time. In an article in the November 2018 issue of Global Cement Magazine it said it had achieved CO2 emissions of 526kg/t from its cement production compared to 578kg/t from other Indian members of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). In its eastern operations it had gone further to reach 400kg/t.
Using CCU is the next step to this progression but Dalmia’s approach is not without its caveats. Firstly, despite the size of the proposed project it is still being described as a ‘large-scale demonstration.’ Secondly, the destination of all that captured CO2, as mentioned above, is still being considered. CCSL uses a post-combustion capture method that captures flue gas CO2 and then combines the use of a proprietary solvent with a heat integration step. Where the capture CO2 goes is vital because if it can’t be sold or utilised in some other way then it needs to be stored, putting up the price. Technology provider CCSL reckons that its CDRMax process has a CO2 capture price tag of US$40/t but it is unclear whether this includes utilisation sales of CO2 or not.
The process is along similar lines to the Skyonic SkyMine (see Global Cement Magazine, May 2015) CCU that was completed in 2015 at the Capitol Cement plant in San Antonio, Texas in the US. However, that post-combustion capture project was aiming for 75,000t/yr of CO2. Dalmia and CCSL’s attempt is six times greater.
Meanwhile, Cembureau, the European cement association, joined a group of industrial organisations in lobbying the European Union (EU) on the Horizon Europe programme. It wants the budget to be raised to at least Euro120m with at least 60% to be dedicated to the ‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’ pillar. This is relevant in a discussion on industrial CO2 emissions reduction because the scheme has been supporting various European cement industry projects, including HeidelbergCement’s work with the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) consortium and Calix at its Lixhe plant in Belgium and its pilots in Norway. As these projects and others reach industrial scale testing they need this money.
These recent developments provide hope for the future of the cement industry. Producers and their associations are engaging with the climate change agenda and taking action. Legislators and governments need to work with the cement sector to speed up this process and ensure that the industry is able to cut its CO2 emissions while continuing to manufacture the materials necessary to build things. Projects like this latest from Dalmia Cement are overdue, but are very encouraging.
Barathi Cement commissions solar energy plant at Kadapa cement plant
17 September 2019India: Barathi Cement has commissioned a 10MW solar power station at its 5.0Mt/yr integrated Barathi Cement Plant. The Hindu Times has reported that the facility, which spans 16.6 hectares, will partially replace combustion-derived electricity sources at the plant.
Oman Cement appoints project consultant
17 September 2019Oman: Oman Cement has engaged the services of a leading consulting company for construction of its 1.8Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Duqm. The company announced the appointment of the consultancy firm to its US$212m project, which has been ongoing since December 2018, on 12 September 2019.
Italy: The 0.4Mt/yr integrated cement plant at Travesio, which has been out of operation since early 2016, has not been purchased by w+p Zement, a subsidiary of Weitersdorfer, the Austrian cement and construction materials group. Diego Franz, the mayor of Travesio, has expressed the hope that Buzzi Unicem will now oversee the decommissioning of the plant itself.
KAR contracts Arab Swiss Engineering Company at Erbil cement plant
16 September 2019Iraq: Arab Swiss Engineering Company (ASEC) will cover operation and maintenance of KAR Group’s 1.9Mt/yr integrated Qarachogh cement plant in Erbil. In a press release, ASEC stated that it has already overseen recruitment and planning and implementation of personnel development programs. ASEC's chairman and managing director Khaled El-Sebaie said he was ‘thrilled’ at the completion of the plant's hand-over.
Grupo Cementos plans 100% renewable power at Odessa cement plant
13 September 2019US: Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua’s 0.9Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Odessa, Texas, will run entirely on wind and solar power. Adpren has reported that the company engaged an unnamed energy provider on a 10-year power purchase agreement for the entirety of its electricity consumption, beginning in July 2022. This will cut 45,000t/yr of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and represents a saving of US$4.6m in energy costs over its period of effect, a saving of 22% annually compared to Grupo Cemento’s current bill.