Displaying items by tag: Upgrade

France: LafargeHolcim France has started the second phase of a Euro100m upgrade project its Martres-Tolosane cement plant. It is starting the construction phase of a new production line following the completion of site preparation and civil engineering. French company Boccard is coordinating the work. Commissioning of the upgrade is scheduled for mid-2020.

Russia: Eurocement is close to completing a Euro2.5m upgrade to a cement grinding mill at its Katavsky cement plant. The project was intended to improve the quality of its cement products and to replace the mill’s filter sleeves. The unit uses which Christian Pfeiffer separators, Aumund elevators, Siemens automation systems and mill grinders and Vega grinding media. Pre-commissioning is currently being completed and cement from the mill is being tested at a laboratory.

The cement producer’s Kavkaztsement plant is building a captive power plant scheduled for commissioning in August 2019. It has completed the construction of the building that will house the gas piston power station as well as other connecting structures. Employees from the plant are being trained by Wärtsilä in preparation for the start up. The project has an investment of around Euro15m.

Argentina: Loma Negra has secured two loans to upgrade its L'Amalí cement plant. The loans are worth US$40.9m and US$12.5m respectively, according to the Bae Negocios newspaper. The cement producer will use the funds to import equipment to the plant as part of a project to build a new US$350m production line at the unit.

US: CalPortland has commissioned a new cement grinding mill and distribution system at its Oro Grande cement plant in California. The US$58.5m project includes the construction of the finish ball mill and two new cement shipping lanes with two new distribution silos. It completes a partial plant modernisation program that was originally completed in 2008, prior to the acquisition of the facility by CalPortland. The Oro Grande cement plant was purchased from Martin Marietta Materials in mid-2015.

“The addition of this modern finish mill and efficient distribution system allows the plant to operate to the best in class standards as originally designed. It will help provide the industry with the additional supply required for necessary rehabilitation and rapidly developing infrastructure in California and Nevada,” said Steve Regis, Senior Vice President Corporate Services, CalPortland.

The project began in January 2018 and was constructed by general contractor ThyssenKrupp and sub-contractor TIC (The Industrial Company), in collaboration with CalPortland’s Engineering Services team.

The mill is a Polysius two compartment mill with production capability of around 180t/hr. It is equipped with motor, mill and separator technology as well as cement cooler design technology. The system also employs mechanical conveyance (bucket elevator) to convey finished product to the new silos, reducing its energy requirements. These additional systems are being added to the Oro Grande plant.

Nigeria: BUA Group has signed a contract with Finland’s Wartsila Oy for construction of a 48MW power plant for Line 3 at its Sokoto Cement plant in Sokoto State. The announcement of the deal follows BUA’s January 2019 announcement that China’s CBMI would build the new line at the site.

Abdul Samad Rabiu , the executive chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of BUA Group, signed on behalf of the group while Wartsila’s Head of Africa Magnus Miemois signed for the power plant provider.

BUA is Nigeria’s second-largest cement producer by volume, with assets that include the 6Mt/yr Obu Cement I & II plants in Okpella, Edo State, CCNN’s 1.5Mt/yr Kalambaina plant and the 0.5Mt/yr Sokoto cement plant.

Pakistan: Flying Cement has ordered a 71-6 OK model cement mill from Denmark’s FLSmidth for its new 7700t/day production line at its Mangwal plant. The mill will be designed to grind Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at a capacity of 415t/hr. Commissioning is expected in 2020, and the mill will be supplied together with an FLSmidth ILC Preheater System, 2-Base Kiln, Cross-Bar Cooler, ROKSH 119 Separator, MAAG WPV-5000 Gear, Heat Exchanger and three filters. No price for the order has been disclosed.

Poland: Germany’s Bilfinger is installing refractory linings at Cemex Polska’s Rudniki cement plant. It is also carrying out assembly work at various parts of the unit. The industrial services company is installing the refractory linings for parts of the plant, which entails using around 2000t of refractory material within a five-month period. It is part of the installation of a new cement clinker production line at the site.

The contract comes under Bilfinger’s Engineering & Maintenance Continental Europe division. Companies for which Bilfinger has worked on past contracts in Poland include cement producers CRH and Dyckerhoff.

Mexico/US: Cemex has entered into a global agreement with Petuum to implement its Industrial AI Autopilot software products for autonomous cement plant operations at its plants around the world. The products for cement plant operations are being deployed at select Cemex USA and Mexico plants and will continue to be rolled out in 2019.

"We expect our yield improvements and energy savings to be up to 7%, from the connected AI-based autopilots, which is game-changing for our industry,” said Rodrigo Quintero, Operations Digital Technologies Manager at Cemex.

Petuum says that its Industrial AI Autopilot suite of products can deliver real-time forecasts for key process variables, prescriptions for critical control variables and supervised autosteer aligned with business objectives for all cement plant operations including clinker cooler, preheater, rotary kiln, pyro-process, ball mill and vertical mill processes to achieve lowered energy consumption, optimised fuel mix and increased throughput while maintaining stable operation and product quality. The products are integrated with plant control systems and OSIsoft PI data infrastructure for scalable and standardised deployments across multiple lines and plants globally.

The joint Cemex and Petuum teams achieved a cruise-control-like supervised ‘autosteer mode,’ where the AI Autopilot could run operations with full engage-disengage control available to the operator.

To find out more about Pettum visit: https://petuum.com/

World: FCT Combustion has released details on new burner projects it is involved with. Selected projects include a new contract in the US to convert both kilns to natural gas firing at Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska. The order includes Gyro-Therm MKII Burners, Natural Valve Trains and NFPA 86 BMS for both kilns.

Nova Cimangola in Angola has contracted FCT to convert its 5000t/day kiln to fuel oil firing. The order includes a multi fuel main burner, calciner burners, oil heating units, oil pumping and filtering units and control panels.

FCT also provided details about a low NO_x kiln conversion for an undisclosed client. Other selected cement sector projects include the commissioning of Turbu-Flex burner systems for clinker kilns at Finnsementti’s Parainen and Lappeenranta plants in Finland. These are scheduled for commissioning in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively. Baumit’s Wopfing plant in Austria is due for a natural has lance for kiln preheating to be delivered later in March 2019.

It also plans to deliver a Turbu-Flex burner system for a clinker kiln to an undisclosed client in China later in March 2019. It is based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study undertaken by FCT is to allow for the firing of natural gas and to modernise the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for March 2019.

Libya: The Libyan Cement Company plans to spend Euro200m on an upgrade to its plant in Benghazi. The project will increase the unit’s production capacity to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr at present. Planning is at an advanced stage, with tenders already issued for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a mixture of new and upgraded facilities. The Central Bank of Libya, other banks and other investors will supply finance for the project.

The cement producer reopened its Benghazi plant in late February 2019. It has over 1000 employees with more openings to follow.