Image gallery for the IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference 2015
The IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference (often known in the industry as the IEEE for short) is the world’s largest cement industry conference and also includes a major exhibition of around 150 exhibitors. Eight vendor hospitality suites entertained delegates each evening, with the suites making a welcome return to the event. A major series of tutorials and professional training sessions also took place at the event, as well as a safety awards banquet and a visit to the St Marys Bowmanville cement plant.
At the start of the conference, Jeff Nagel, the IEEE-IAS CIC chairman gave an opening address, welcoming the over 900 delegates from around the world to the event. He mentioned that the IAS, the Industrial Applications Society, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. He introduced Martin Vroegh, chairman of the organising committee and a representative of St Marys Bowmanville, owned by Votorantim, and also Corinne Fields, vice Chair, who were instrumental in organising this year’s event.
Ed Sullivan, chief economist of the PCA, then gave his much-anticipated annual outlook on US cement demand. He first decried the naysayers who had questioned his forecasts from the previous year, telling them that he had been right after all, with the industry experiencing growth of nearly 9%. He suggested, barring unforeseen events, that the outlook for the industry will be just as good. Jobs will be the engine that will support cement demand: Jobs create the basis for stable families, stimulate demand for industrial and office facilities and also create stronger state finances through taxes, leading to more money for cement-intensive infrastructure projects.
Construction activity is expected to grow by 5.6% through 2015, led by residential, non-residential and some government spending. This strong growth is expected to continue to 2019 at least, but even by then, activity will not have attained its pre-crisis peak. Cement consumption will grow by 7.5% in 2015 and at high rates in 2016. Ed suggested that it will be 15 years from the last peak, until the US regains the same level of activity as before - a lost ‘decade-and-a-half.’ Ed suggested that cement intensity (the proportion of cement used in construction jobs) will also increase, but did not explain why. Ed forecast that GDP growth will moderate to around 2.8% through 2015, partly due to the lower oil price and partly due to poor weather in the first quarter of 2015. Strong job creation, including three million new jobs expected between 2015 - 2017, will provide upward pressure on wages, consumer confidence will improve, and low oil prices will mean that there will be more money in the economy. Interest rates will remain low, and new homes will remain affordable. Lending risks have subsided and lending standards are set to ease. The economic recovery will move into a higher growth phase in the years ahead: there will be a healing of excesses and, Ed said, there is a huge pent-up demand that remains to be met. “Recessions force us to get our house in order and to address imbalances in the economy. We are expecting consumers to take the lead after they have deleveraged: the debt-to-income ratio is at an 18-year low, meaning that we are in a position to spend. Consumer wealth remains strong via home price increases and stock performances.” The dollar has also strengthened, making imports cheaper, but making exports more expensive. [Euro-denominate exhibitors reported strong interest from US equipment buyers].
Ed suggested that oil prices will bottom out at US$55/barrel, increasing to the high US$60s by the end of 2016. Ed showed a table of break even points of shale drilling, ranging from US$24/barrel in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, to a high of US$85/barrel in the Barnett Shale in Texas. The price of oil on international markets will continue to dictate the economics and profitability of US oil and shale oil production.
“Right now, we look as though we are on a very good footing, but it is much more difficult to forecast out beyond about three years.” Ed pointed out that double-digit percentage increases in house-building are not so difficult to achieve from the depths plumbed in the abyss of the Great Recession. Ed detailed the credit scoring calculations that are used to determine if consumers can afford a mortgage on a home purchase. Pre-crisis credit was too easy to obtain, but post-crisis the pendulum swung too far so that it was it too difficult to finance purchases and the stream of home-buyers dried up. Those credit scoring calculations have now been amended once again, to enable more people to qualify for house-buying mortgages, supporting house-building and cement consumption. Ed suggested that there will be a modest increase in public (government) spending, after a seven year decline, based on a rebuilding of state finances. “You hire a worker, you hire a taxpayer,” reiterated Ed, pointing out that as state balance sheets are rebuilt, budgets are being pointed towards entitlements (social security and the like) and away from infrastructure: potholes and crumbling bridges go unrepaired, once again leaving large pent-up demand for eventual cement-intensive construction work. US cement plant capacity utilisation rates are around 80% at the moment and are expected to increase to around 90% by 2017, leading to increased levels of imports. Ed reminded delegates that 310 million people live in the US at the moment, but that by 2035 another 58 million people will be living in the country, requiring huge increases in cement supply. Ed suggested that as early as in 2017 demand will have increased past domestic supply capabilities, with a deficit of around 50Mt by 2035. With the many hurdles to the building of new capacity, including the many new environmental regulations, Ed suggested that this increased demand will go unsupplied by US cement plants and will instead be largely supplied through huge quantities of cement imports.
Glenn Thibeault, representative of the government of Ontario, told delegates that the shift to a low carbon economy in his province, including the elimination of all coal-fired power stations, will create jobs and lead to industrial innovation and growth.
After these welcoming remarks and keynotes, the technical programme began. The conference featured some parallel sessions, so that not all presentations are reviewed here.
Clotilde Rossi di Schio of Turboden spoke about a hybrid Organic Rankin Cycle (ORC) waste heat recovery (WHR) and solar thermal plant in Morocco. The system partly hedges the plant against future prices rises in electricity and enhances the plant’s reliability since the existing grid supplies electricity only intermittently. A high molecular weight working fluid is used for the system, which leads to lower turbine peripheral speeds, fewer turbine stages and higher turbine efficiencies, and which means that the system can be used for waste heat sources at as low as 150°C. Clotilde spoke about the installation of the system in the new-build Ciments du Maroc 2.2Mt/year cement plant, which has a lack of water resources. Installing a WHR system allows the replacement of the commonly-used water conditioning tower with a siloxane-based WHR system, which generates around 9GWhour/year. Alongside the fully-automatic WHR system, three linear parabolic solar collectors, each 215m long, create 1.3MW/hr to supplement the plant’s electrical supply.
Carrie Yonley of Schreiber & Yonley Associates/Trinity Consultants gave an update on the US regulatory landscape for alternative fuels (AF). Permitting and approvals are required to address state and local regulations. State air permits vary from simple to complex, while state-specific solid waste regulations may or may not apply to AF, and beneficial reuse approval may apply in some states. New federal rules are coming in under CISWI (Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste Incinerators) and NHSM (Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials) rules, that apply to fuels or ingredients in combustion units, and which effectively also define ‘waste’ for energy recovery facilities. PC MACT-regulated plants can use traditional fuels and non-waste fuels. A combustion facility is CISWI regulated unless records are maintained that show that the AF are not solid wastes. CISWI-regulated plants can use the same fuels as PC-MACT plants, but can also use non-hazardous ‘waste’-based fuels. Record-keeping and hitting deadlines are crucial in order to comply with the different regulatory regimes. The crux to defining a fuel as a waste or as waste-derived, is whether or not it has ever been discarded (and litigation is ongoing as to the precise meaning of the word ‘discarded’). Even discarded materials can become ‘non-waste’ if they are sufficiently processed, particularly if the processing has the effect of reducing final emissions. Three further tests are also applied to determine if the material has progressed beyond the waste stage: Is it treated as a valuable commodity?; Does it have a meaningful heating value?; Does it have a comparable or lower level of contamination/associated emissions compared to traditional fuels? “The future of regulation is indistinct,” concluded Carrie Yonley.
Greg Mayes of Sustainable Processes LLC suggested that common sense is now becoming prevalent on the use of AF in the US. Coal prices have increased by 61% between 2002 - 2012, electricity prices are up 20%, natural gas prices fluctuate wildly and AFs are now required for industrial competitiveness. Greg asked the crucial question, “Do the cost benefits of using AF justify the new headaches that they will bring?” and answered with a predictable “It depends.” As an example of effective AF use, he mentioned the whole-tyre skewer suspension burning system supplied by AFS Technology at the Martin Marietta plant in Midlothian, which can feed tyres into the precalciner for effective combustion: there is plenty of turbulence in that area and a likelihood of complete burnout. “Stick to your core business:” said consultant Greg, “This is necessary to stay competitive,” he concluded.
Mark Vermeire of Votorantim next spoke about sustainability in the cement industry. Mark suggested that the company’s plants in Michigan, Illinois and Florida are all supported by state regulators, but that Ontario has a politically charged environmental agency, which is very cautious and which has one of the most conservative approaches to alternative fuels in North America, with cap-and-trade also coming down the line in the near future. The Votorantim-owned Bowmanville plant has been fighting hard for permission to use alternative fuels for at least seven years, but Mark said that “Confrontational battles are not going to help to support the social license. This is primarily a communication and social project, which needs to be managed in a soft and tender way.” Mark stated that creating biofuels from CO2-using algae - or ‘pond scum’ as he called it - can be profitable and may be an “environmental game-changer.” It is certainly a good news story and a great piece of public relations.
Alex Guyse of Cemex next championed CFD modeling for AF: he asked the pertinent question of where in the 10-storey preheater tower should AF be introduced: CFD can be used to avoid making negative impacts on the system in the real world, since different process configurations can first be thoroughly investigated in the virtual world. Alex said that Cemex uses its own CFD software to evaluate potential AF projects, to troubleshoot and optimise plant processes, to analyse regulatory compliance failure, to evaluate emissions control technologies and to look at other process alterations and updates.
David Rib of Mitsubishi Cement, manager of corporate social responsibility working out of the Cushenbury plant in California on the edge of the Mojave Desert, stated that the basic reason for using AF is to decrease costs and to decrease reliance on variable-price coal, as well as to reduce emissions and to decrease greenhouse gases. “There are about as many scrap tyres each year in the US as there are people in North America: around 400 million each year at the moment.”
The Cushenbury plant uses around 2 million tyres each year, replacing 14% of its coal needs. Creosoted railroad ties (or ‘sleepers’) were previously used but were eventually rejected for use at the plant, due to the presence of metal spikes and plates in the sleepers, which smashed up the plant’s AF shredders, and due to the fact that every load of sleepers had to be tested to determine its concentration of creosote to determine if it should be classified as a hazardous waste. Innumerable federal and state regulations mean a great deal of costly testing of emissions - good for testing contractors, not so good for the cement companies. Expensive carbon isotope testing is required to determine the biogenic component of tyres, which typically have around 25% biogenic and 75% fossil-fuel-derived constituents. David reported that individual tests show a range from separate individual tyres from 18-34%, but the general value varies in a small range of 23-25% (but despite this the plant is not allowed to use such an average value and is obliged to continue expensive testing). Cryogenic crushing is required for engineered fuels prior to elemental and biogenic composition.
Michael Weller of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP spoke about the effects of the recent Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act proposals on the cement industry. In short he suggested that the federal government is expanding its jurisdiction and that this will lead to more difficulties, delays and costs for cement industry projects. The federal Clean Water Act prohibits impacts on regulated waters or wetlands of the United States, but the new rules overhaul the meaning of ‘waters of the United States (WOTUS).’ These include traditional navigable waters, interstate waters, territorial seas, impoundments, tributaries and adjacent waters, and will include all waters ‘with a significant nexus[connection]’ with any WOTUS. This rule change will mean that many more waters will be regulated and will require federal permits to be applied for and issued and mitigation actions to be taken. The Endangered Species Act means that entities cannot import, possess or take a listed (endangered) species, where ‘take’ means ‘harass, harm, pursue etc,’ and includes the modification of the habitat of a listed species. Under the rules, even if a listed species is not present on a piece of land, if the species could use the habitat, then the land will not be allowed to be altered or harmed. Michael suggested that mitigation costs may top US$1m/acre for some projects.
Jared Weston of FLSmidth spoke about an interesting project for the extraction and hydration of calcined raw meal for use in controlling sulphur dioxide emissions, at the 5800t/day two-string SLC preheater Bowmanville cement plant. CaO is excellent at absorbing sulphur in the preheater tower and this will then be absorbed into the clinker. Purchased hydrated lime has previously been used to control emissions at a consumption rate of 1.5t/hour. A new project was undertaken to extract and hydrate a portion of the calcined raw meal into calcium hydroxide in order to re-inject it with the feed to control sulphur dioxide emissions. Results showed strong reductions in SOx emissions when using the new system (and no adverse effects on clinker chemistry or on mortar strengths) and the project gave a favourable return on investment, compared to continued outside purchase of hydrated lime.
Josh Goldman of SKF USA Inc spoke about ceramic bearings for electric motors which can be used to reduce current leakage and excessive voltage. Magnetic flux asymmetries may cause a low voltage current that flows through metal bearings, as well as capacitive discharge if lubricants break down, potentially causing damage. When a discharge occurs, a spark may effectively momentarily micro-weld the bearing to the roller, leading to micro-pits or craters that lend a dulled appearance to bearings, while a washboard or fluted appearance may be caused by current leakage. Symmetrical shielded cabling, proper grounding of the motor and/or insulating the bearings are among the solutions for the problems. One method to insulate the bearings would be to coat the outer or inner ring with a ceramic coating, while another method would be to use silicon nitride ceramic bearings in a so-called ‘hybrid’ bearing. Josh gave an example of a cement plant that previously had to rebuild its main centrifugal fan every five weeks due to bearings issues, but after the installation of ceramic bearings the lifetime of the fan bearings was increased to two years with a cost saving of approximately US$47,000.
Wes Allen of the Aumund Corporation spoke about preventative maintenance and root cause analysis. Wes firstly pointed out that there is a ‘double-whammy’ hitting experience in US cement plants at the moment, with a loss of knowledge due to layoffs during the recession and also due to the impending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. Wes presented an example of a catastrophic pan conveyor failure that cost US$1m due to repair costs and lost production: he strongly stated that preventative maintenance programmes will pay for themselves in savings, production reliability and in safety improvements. A data-logging test roller can be fitted to pan-conveyors to assess wear and alignment issues as part of an effective preventative maintenance strategy.
Conference second day
On the second day of the conference, the first speech was by John Stull, PCA Chairman, and president and CEO of Lafarge North America Inc. John said that the PCA has two priorities; market promotion (essentially promotion of the use of concrete); and business continuity. The cement industry group is working with government on greenhouse gasses, on water and on ozone emissions, and has promoted the acceptance of Portland limestone cement in many states. John pointed out that cement and concrete compete against other building materials, and accepted that cement has lost out to wood in the recent past, due to vagaries in the building codes. The PCA is also working on amendments to building codes in order to promote the use of cement and concrete and to gain ground on other building materials, and on the promotion of stiff concrete pavements that will lead to better fuel economy for drivers. He said that the regulation of water and associated permitting, is the greatest challenge for the industry in the US at the moment. In the face of the current retirement/recruitment crisis, John also made a call for the encouragement of more female engineers: “If you have daughters, encourage them to become civil or mechanical engineers!” he cried.
Franz Ulm of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub picked up John’s topic and spoke further on the benefit of concrete pavements. He said that the stiffness of the pavement is important in determining fuel consumption, and that concrete of sufficient thickness is an excellent material for making fuel-efficient road surfaces. Franz showed a series of maps derived from GIS and ‘big data,’ identifying roads in California that would be most beneficially upgraded from asphalt to concrete.
Tom Harman, Washington DC representative of the PCA, spoke about the regulatory agendas of government agencies. There is a renewed focus on contractor safety: there have been five fatalities in cement manufacturing in the US since October 2013, all of them contractors, with four of those resulting from falls. Safety measures for working at height are now exceptionally strict and infringements are being severely dealt with. Fines are set to increase yet further, possibly into the millions of dollars per case. John pointed out that CCPs. WOTUS, ozone, NESHAP, CISWI and NHSM are the main regulatory challenges to cement producers in the US at the moment. To comply with the WOTUS regulations, it is estimated that it will cost the US cement industry US$55-103m annually, accounting for 33 - 37% of all industry costs in the US. The US EPA has proposed reducing the ozone standard to as low as 60ppb, with potentially a total cost to the cement industry of US$1.9bn, and potentially leading to plant closures and the loss of 900 jobs from plants that are unable to economically comply.
John Kline of John Kline Consulting next spoke on control technologies and the vagaries of compliance. He pointed out that the cement industry has effectively been under a ‘storm’ of new regulations promulgated by the EPA and other government agencies, addressing particulate emissions, regional haze issues, NOx, SOx, heavy metals including mercury and lead, dioxins and furans, THC, CO and HCl, with multiple regulations addressing individual pollutants and often regulating them at different levels. Additionally, federal and state regulators do not always agree on permitting levels and the procedures for permitting. John pointed out that the avoidance of the production of NOx is the easiest method for NOx control - once it has been produced it is more difficult and much more expensive to reduce. For the control of SOx and HCl, dry sorbent injection, evaporative gas scrubbing or (most expensively) wet gas scrubbing can all be used. Individual states are now levying fees on cement plants for pollutants, which may start to control the type of technology chosen.
Through the rest of the conference, a series of panel discussions took place, on how to comply with near-impossibly-stringent particulate regulations, on blending silo technology and on NESHAP-compliant continuous emissions monitoring systems. The previously mentioned popular Safety Awards Banquet took place at the end of the second day of the conference. At the end of the event, the field trip to the St Marys Bowmanville cement plant (see Global Cement Magazine April 2015) was very well-attended and enjoyed by all participants.
Conclusions
The 57th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference was a great venue to meet old friends and make new contacts, and was professionally organised and run, in large part by the many dedicated volunteers on the event’s organising committees. The 58th IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference will take place in Dallas on 15 - 19 May 2016, and is expected once again to be a popular meeting place for the North American cement industry.