Global Cement Magazine recently visited the Fushë Krujë Cement Factory (FKCF) in Albania - a ‘hybrid’ plant with aspects of both the old and the new - to understand the unique challenges that the plant faces and the strenuous efforts that it is taking to overcome them.
Albania is a much-overlooked country that deserves to be better known. Albania has an area of 28,748 km², making it slightly smaller than the US state of Maryland. The country has a population of 2.89m and the spoken language is Albanian.1 Albania has two primary topographical areas: a coastal plain and a densely forested interior mountainous region rising to nearly 3000m. The country is bordered by Montenegro on the northwest, Kosovo on the northeast, The Republic of North Macedonia on the east and Greece to the south.
Any historian will find their head spinning when looking over the various conquerors of the territory that is now Albania.2 Albanians consider themselves to be direct descendants of Illyrian tribes that lived in today’s Albania. The area has come under the influence of Thracian and Greek tribes and was annexed by Rome in the third century BCE following the Illyrian-Roman wars. Afterwards, the territory came under Byzantine control and major parts of it were integrated into the Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century. After the 13th century, coastal Albania came under the control of Venice, and the rest under the Ottoman Empire, until the first Albanian state was formed in 1912. It was subsequently occupied for almost a year by Serbia, which withdrew in 1913 under the Treaty of London, and then by Italy and Germany in WWII. After the Second World War, Albania became a communist state, called the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, which for most of its duration was dominated by the dictator Enver Hoxha. The country’s communist regime collapsed in 1990, leading to a decade of economic collapse and social unrest and the formation of an extensive Albanian diaspora when talent sought better options outside the country. However, economic and political stability from the late 1990s onwards has improved the situation and Albania became a full member of NATO in 2009. The country is applying to join the European Union, although its endemic corruption and poor judicial system are major factors delaying entry. Around 70% of the population are Muslim and 25% Christian.
GDP was US$15.3bn in 2018 (US$4537/capita), with a GDP growth rate of 3.8%. Services make up 63% of the economy, agriculture 22% and industry 15%. Albania has Europe’s largest chromium reserves and is the world’s ninth largest producer of figs. Patos Marinza oilfield is the largest onshore oilfield in continental Europe, and has been operational since 1928.
The Fushë Krujë plant is strategically located in the middle of Albania, close to the town of Fushë Krujë, some 5km off the main national road and 30km north of the capital Tirana. The nearest airport is Tirana International Airport, named after Albania’s most famous nun, Mother Theresa, which is only 20 minutes drive from the plant. The major port of Durres is 35km to the south west of the site. The cement plant is situated on the edge of the coastal plain, in the foothills of the mountainous interior of the country.
Fushë Krujë plant history
The plant was first commissioned as a state-owned company in 1966, with two wet-process clinker lines of 50,000t/yr each and an annual combined clinker production of 0.1Mt/yr. Three ball mills converted the clinker to cement. In 1973, a third kiln line of 200,000t/yr was added, bringing the total clinker production to 0.3Mt/yr. During this period a number of milestones were reached under the auspices of renowned Albanian cement technologist Professor Dr Andon Pecani (who still works at the plant in his 70s): In 1975 the first low-heat cement was produced and the first oil well cement was created for the deepest oil well of the time of approximately 6000m depth. In 1976 the first sulphate-resisting cement was produced at the plant for marine construction applications, while in 1977 very high strength cement (with Blaine of 6000cm2/g, equivalent to today’s 52.5R cements) was produced for the country’s bunkerisation campaign. The paranoid dictator Hoxha directed the building of 173,000 bunkers all over the country, to counter any invasion by the country’s perceived enemies. The vast majority of the bunkers still exist, perhaps testament to the high quality of the cement used in their construction. Production of clinker continued until 1995, but due to the political unrest of 1997, the plant then ceased operations for almost three years and the three wet kilns were decommissioned.
A new era in the cement plant’s history began in 2000, when the Lebanon-based Seament Holding Group purchased the factory from the Albanian government during a privatisation process and established the ‘Fushë-Krujë Cement Factory sh.p.k.’ After privatisation and the acquisition of the majority of the shares, the factory was converted into a clinker grinding plant, using imported clinker, with a grinding capacity of 0.5Mt/yr.
In 2001, Seament Holding Group decided to build a new cement plant with a projected cost of US$130m. In December 2003, a modern dry-process clinker plant was ordered from China’s CBMI Construction Co., Ltd. (CBMI). Mark Bouri, representative of the investing family, oversaw project design and contracting with CBMI, leading to a successful business project for CBMI and the investors. By the end of 2005, two new 100t/hr Chinese ball mills were commissioned and in the autumn of 2006 the new KHD two-pier kiln of 4.8m x 52m was commissioned, with the Provisional Acceptance Certificate signed in January 2007.
Dipl.-Ing. Luan Bici, plant manager since 2010 and an industrial chemist with decades of experience in the industry, gave Global Cement some background to the construction project: “The Fushë-Krujë Cement Factory project was the first in Europe for CBMI and we had a lot of attention. It took 19 months from the start of the project to the end, during which time we had more than 500 Chinese workers at the factory. The erection and commissioning phase was overlooked by an international team of experienced professionals.”
In 2009 Charles Bouri, the company’s general manager and representative of the family that owns the plant, instituted a complete change of management and staff. Between 2009 - 2011, the plant underwent a complete restructuring and allocation of responsibilities with the aim of bringing the line to its nominal capacity and overcoming lingering problems that had persisted since commissioning. Thanks to the resilience and persistence of the local team headed by Mr. Bici, most of system, machinery, and process bottlenecks were dealt with, bringing the plant to nominal capacity in June 2011, producing reactive and grindable clinker. Since then the goal has been to produce at this level with ease and to reduce production costs.
Fuel strategies
The story of the plant’s mission to increase the quality of its fuels and simultaneously to reduce its costs is an interesting one, recounted by plant manager Luan Bici: “One of the challenges that we had to bring the plant to full production was the variability and poor quality of the local coal/lignite we had been using. Partly due to the depth of the mines and their poor maintenance, the content of chlorine, fluorine and volatiles was very variable, as was the calorific value (CV), while the sulphur content was high, making it difficult to maintain a stable pyro-system. Instead we had to use lignitic coal bought from Russia and Ukraine at a cost of US$140-200/t - which is now also subject to a US$30/t ‘carbon tax.’ We set out to find a better, cheaper local alternative. We eventually found a source 177km away of mixed sandy bitumen and bituminous coal with ash content of around 45-55%, that, since it was quarried on an open-cast-basis, was only US$35/t on a delivered cost basis, with a CV of 3500kCal/kg, compared to the 6500 - 7000kCal/kg of the imported coal. This unique fuel still has an average sulphur content of 3.5-5%, with a maximum of 8% in its pure bitumen form, which means that it cannot be used on its own. We use the fuel for 30% thermal substitution, trucking 15-20 lorries per day the 177km from the quarry. Imported coal is brought into the company’s own dock at the port of Durres, 35km from the plant. Our fuel mix now consists of the Russia/Ukrainian lignitic coal and Albanian bituminous coal/sand mixed together to provide 4500-5000kCal/kg, with ash content of 32-39%.”
“Given that we still have quite high sulphur in the fuel mix, which can make the plant prone to blockages, we have had to take some action to change the material flow through the pyro-system. For example, we increased the cross section of the riser duct to reduce the gas speed and to reduce the volatility of sulphur by reducing the O2 content of the gas. This reduced the gas speed from 36m/s to 20m/s, increasing the residence time from three seconds to up to seven seconds. All these upgrades, including the installation of a new, bigger ID fan, the continuous training of our enginnering staff, naturally brought the plant performance to a new level. The plant can now produce 4000t of clinker per day, while current clinker throughput of 3900t/day, compared to its nominal capacity of 3300t/day, is only limited by the fuel mix grinding capacity. In our peak performance we have reached up to 4150 t/day.” The coal mill was supplied by Beijing Power Equipment Corp, type-ZGM95G, with nominal capacity of 50t/hr.
Since the commissioning of the new plant, a number of initiatives have taken place to improve the products and cost efficiency of the plant. In 2011, a new Euro4m 6kV electricity substation was built at the plant to enable it to benefit from cheaper grid electricity, taken from the main Greece-Montenegro interconnector at US$50 - 70/MWh, rather than having to rely on its more expensive fuel-oil powered Wärstila generating set. By 2012, record capacities were achieved with production of 4100t/day clinker and 5200t/day cement and ‘Kruja mall’ brand Masonry cement (MC 12.5X) was introduced, mainly for the Kosovo market. In 2013 the ‘Krujacem’ brand was established, going on to become a well-recognised trademark in the industry. A sulphate-resisting clinker was first marketed in 2014 and the CEM I SR3 has been CE-certified, allowing its use throughout Europe.
Plant description
The plant exploits two quarries, one for limestone (1000m away from the plant) and one for clay (500m away), both of which had previously been used for the old cement plant. The quantity of limestone reserves in the existing quarry can sustain the present production rate (3300t/day) for over 80 years and the current clay resource under the same conditions can be expected to last for another 15 years. Two additional clay locations are part of the plant’s concession area and will be progressively used as the old clay quarry is worked-out. Following quarrying and primary crushing, the materials pass through a Thermo Fisher Scientific CBX 3/1200 PGNAA cross belt analyser to allow for compositional analysis and dynamic mixing in the raw mix pile. The raw mix is subsequently reclaimed from the 40,000t-capacity circular storage area (covered by the largest dome in the Balkans) and after quality corrections are made, the materials are ground in a Gebr. Pfeiffer MPS 5000B 280t/hr vertical raw mill.
Jurgen Kola, the plant’s quality assurance manager, gave some details on the plant’s pyro-processing lines: “Our current LSF hovers around 120 - 128, due to the high ash content of our fuel mix. After grinding of the raw mix, the raw meal of 14% R90μm is transported to a 16,000t homogenising silo and is then fed to a KHD Pyroclon-type five-stage preheater with an in-line calciner, where about 97% of the calcination process occurs. The remaining calcination and clinkerisation process takes place in the 52m-long two-pier rotary kiln which has an inclination of 3.5°. The main burner in the kiln is a KHD Pyrojet with four channels.”
“Following a 2009 study on the availability and the practical use of the local bitumen in the kiln system, the plant management decided to have a trial run in the summer of 2011. The industrial trial was a success, so it was decided to start full-scale use of the fuel. The bitumen/earth mix is mined in low-cost open-cast pits and we are one the few plants in the world that uses such a fuel mix. Local petcoke has been used on and off over the years and is typically driven by specific calorific value costs. The high sulphur content of the available petcoke makes it a process control challenge to use. The plant has a dedicated fuel storage area with 7000t capacity and can also store an additional 20,000t in an old clinker storage hall.”
“Going back to the clinker’s journey through the system, the plant is equipped with a grate cooler with stationary inlet. This Pyrostep cooler has an hydraulic drive with each of its three grates. The clinker is cooled to between 60 - 80°C above ambient temperature and is then transferred by a bucket conveyor to a 40,000t storage silo. From here, the material is withdrawn to be conveyed to the cement mill feed bins through a dedicated transfer belt. There are two closed-loop cement ball mills, each of them equipped with a third generation O-Sepa type dynamic separator. Other than clinker and gypsum, high-grade limestone and schist are used as additives. Ball mills were originally commissioned for a 100t/hr throughput under a different production scenario and now, due to quality constraints, run at an average of 90t/hr.”
Final product
Cement is stored in 10 existing old silos with a total capacity of approximately 25,000t and two new cement silos each with 8000t capacity, reaching a total storage capacity close to 41,000t. Two packing lines are each equipped with a Haver & Boecker Rotopacker with eight manual-applicator filling spouts. The final product is packed in a palletless concept in 50kg and 25kg bags by two Möllers palletiser lines. Bags are sourced from a variety of companies, including local company Gulit, Mondi in Italy, Segeja in Romania and Lirimi in Kosovo. Final product is also sold as bulk or in big bags. Bulk product accounts for about 65 - 70% of sales, while bags account for 30 – 35%. As Jurgen Kola mentioned, “We stand strong in quality and have built a reputation and we put every effort at maintaining our position.” Overall, FKCF produces five CE-certified cements, packed in 10 different combinations and distributed either in bulk or in 1.95t or 1.75t pallet configuration.
Cement markets
The Fushë Krujë Cement Factory itself enjoys a 40% domestic market share, while around 45% of its production goes for export, to Kosovo (which takes around half of exports), Montenegro, the Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, either in bulk or in bags. Exports to Serbia are dosed with iron sulphate to reduce Chromium VI, according to local regulations, with the additive sourced from Melspring of Romania. The Albanian market tends to be very competitive, with some of the lowest prices in Europe. FKCF products have been used for major projects, such as the Namazgja Mosque, the new Tirana Olympic Park and Hall, new National Arena, Tirana’s new ring overpass, the Olympic stadium in Elbasan and various Statkraft hydropower projects in Banja & Moglica.
The Seament Holding Group also owns the Elbasan plant, around 40km south of Tirana, which operated a 145m-long wet kiln until 2010 when it was decommissioned. In 2013 the cement mill at the Elbasan plant was restarted, operating at a rate of 30t/h, equal to 0.1Mt year and supplied with clinker by the Fushë Krujë plant. The Elbasan plant now operates as a grinding plant and dispatch terminal, with 60,000t of storage capacity and is managed by British expat Peter Russell.
Environment
The company has employed a dedicated environmental manager, Joli Lico, to not only improve the plant and its surroundings, but also to bolster the environmental performance of the plant and to build good relationships with the plant’s neighbours. To that end, the plant has been expanding its ‘green zone’ each year, and now counts 5500 trees of various types on the original plant property and on land that it has bought adjacent to the plant, to form a green buffer. On the plant site itself, FKCF has planted about 105 fig trees, 80 persimmon trees, 30 plums and 30 mimosas. The 240 olive trees that have also been planted around the site produced about 90 litres of olive oil in 2018. A seasonal garden grows vegetables that are used in the works canteen. As Joli says, “We strive for a well-managed territory and our industrial dust emissions are always within Albanian norms.”
Occupational health & safety
In 2016, the management of the company decided that it needed to implement a drastic change in health & safety concepts. An independent National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (Nebosh) course provider was contracted from the UK to deliver a comprehensive safety training regime. The first group of 20 managers was awarded the Nebosh award in Health and Safety in 2016. During 2017 - 2018, a total of 113 managers and engineers passed the award and an additional 53 were trained on the International General Certificate and International Fire Safety Certificates. Fushë Krujë Cement Factory’s target for 2018 - 2019 is to train the entire workforce of 345 on the foundations of health and safety, through a team of 12 qualified in-house trainers delivering the course in Albanian. As plant manager Luan Bici stated, “Our goal is to have an accident-free and harm-free workplace and our resources and efforts are going towards making Fushë Krujë Cement Factory a trendsetter in health and safety achievements.” When asked what his target is for lost-time accidents, Luan Bici replied “It has to be zero.”
Future plans
Luan Bici continued on to mention a few of the company’s future plans: “We do not have a bypass on the kiln so we are currently limited in our potential use of alternative fuels. We have had a KHD design for a bypass system and a burning chamber, which would allow us to use up to 70% alternative fuel substitution rates, but the time is not yet right. There are potential sources of alternative fuels all around us - in Italy, Greece and elsewhere - but it is currently illegal to import municipal solid waste for use as a fuel into Albania. However, there is a time coming when EU laws will prevail in Albania and we must be ready for that day. Since 2017 we have been busy benchmarking and training on the use of alternative fuels and we will be ready if legislation is approved. In the meantime, we have been able to use 12,000t of oil mud drillings provided to us as a fuel. We have also looked at the potential of the plant to generate energy from waste heat and our calculations suggest the viability of a 6MW WHR plant at Fushë Krujë Cement Factory, depending on technology and the cost of finance and the cost of grid electricity supply. The company has also previously looked at the possibility of installing solar generation capacity. We will also improve the efficiency and safety of our plant’s internal transport system by establishing dedicated and separate lorry and pedestrian routes.”
Conclusion
Fushë Krujë Cement Factory’s young staff are working hard to bring the plant to its full potential, despite intense local competition and logistic difficulties brought about by the poor state of Albania’s infrastructure, most notably its poorly-maintained roads. The country’s economic growth will ensure that demand for cement will continue to rise, while ongoing reforms in the country’s governance will bring closer the day when the country will be able to join the EU. When that happens, the full economic potential of currently-underexploited Albania will be unleashed, and Fushë Krujë Cement Factory will be very busy indeed.
1 https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/albania_map2.htm
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Albania