Displaying items by tag: Fly Ash

Japan: Nippon Paper Industries has announced that it will jointly launch a new project with Zerotechno, located in Oita city, to produce and sell fly ash to the cement industry. Both companies will establish the Nippon Paper Zerotechno Tohoku limited liability partnership on 1 July 2014, which is to be based at the site of Nippon Paper Ishinomaki Mill in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture. The purpose of the project is to contribute to restoration of Tohoku district from the earthquake disaster by expanding use of carbon-free fly ash derived from coal ash that coal-fired boilers emit at Ishinomaki Mill.

US: Titan America has announced that it has recently formed ST Equipment & Technology LLC (STET), in order to further expand the development of its separation technology in fly ash and mineral applications worldwide. STET will be based in Needham, Massachussetts, US.

Mike Allen, who recently joined the Titan family of businesses, will serve as STET's President. His experience spans 30 years in international mining and minerals equipment and operations, most recently as Komatsu America Corp's Vice President of International Sales. He reports to current Titan America CEO, Aris Papadopoulos, who will become STET's Executive Chairman on 1 August 2014.

Chile: Chile-based utility company E-CL and Cementos Bío Bío's Antofagasta plant have signed a contract that is related to the reuse of fly ash for cement production.

After a long process of development and testing between the two companies, the ash that is captured by filters from the central generating units Thermal Andina (CTA) and Thermal Power Hornitos (CTH) in Mejillones, is used to replace natural pozzolan in Cementos Bío Bío's cement products.

Cementos Bío Bío expects to consume 70% of the daily production of fly ash from the CTA and CTH generating units. The project will bring a huge environmental benefit, since prior to this agreement, all the ash was deposited in landfills. The ash is a non-hazardous waste with similar properties to natural pozzolan, so its use in place of pozzolan means that the cement maintains its durability and strength.

Carlos Ferruz, manager of generation sites and E-CL, said that, "This initiative gives a new use for the ash, incorporating this non-hazardous waste as a raw material to a useful product such as cement. Loading, transport and unloading is performed without generating pollution." Ferruz added, "Usually the ash resulting from electricity generation is taken to a landfill, but with this innovation the ash acquires a new use and proves to be a real contribution to the environmental sustainability policies of both companies."

Germany: ENTECCOgroup announced on 2 December 2013 that it has acquired Turbofilter GmbH in order to further strengthen its activities in the steel and flue gas cleaning industry.

Turbofilter GmbH, founded by Fritz von Opel in Essen in 1958, has more than 50 years of experience in offering process-oriented solutions for industrial dust removal and flue and exhaust gas cleaning worldwide. It manufactures standard filters and complicated turnkey plants in the field of environmental technology.

"The union with the ENTECCOgroup and the restructuring of Turbofilter GmbH concerning long-term job and location security, as well as the positioning in the market, are the right steps at the right time. Together with the ENTECCOgroup we will speed up our expansion even faster," said Rainer Bertling and Jürgen Waller, shareholder and manager of Turbofilter GmbH.

ENTECCOgroup has made the environmental technology industry a priority. The industry expanded from US$560m in 2003 to US$744m in 2010 and currently employs more than 3.5 million workers in Europe. These numbers are expected to double by 2020.

Sweden: Cementa is developing a new cement that uses fly ash for sale by 2015. The project is part of the Swedish subsidiary of HeidelbergCement's drive to reduce its carbon emissions by 2030 and to meet the growing environmental requirements of its customers.

"We see this as a natural further step in our vision of zero carbon emissions by 2030," said Fredrik Jansson, Vice President and Marketing Director at Cementa.

Australia: Australia Cement has been found in breach of Australian competition for a fly ash contract that lessened competition. As reported by The Australian newspaper, Justice Andrew Greenwood of the Federal Court in Brisbane made the verdict in a case against the cement producer by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The ACCC had alleged that Cement Australia had breached the abuse of market power provision though a fly ash contract with Millmerran Power Partners. While finding no breach of section 46 of the Act, Justice Greenwood said Cement Australia had breached section 45 through a contract to buy the fly ash from the power station.

Only interim declarations were publicly released to give the parties the chance to go through the about 500-page judgment in case of any confidentiality issues. Justice Greenwood reserved his decision on costs and no decision was made on any penalties.

US: VHSC Cement has announced the commercial release of Pozzoslag 1.2, a cementitious material made using coal fly ash as a raw material. VHSC promotes its product as a partial replacement to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), offering early set times, greater long-term strength and enhanced concrete durability. Users are also able to reduce their chemical additive packages and lower the total amount of cementitious binder material.

"Pozzoslag 1.2 is created using a patented process that was introduced into commercial operations in November of 2012. This new product uses raw fly ash as a base material to produce a cementitious blend of material that meets grade 120 slag strengths based on ASTM 989 testing protocols. Using Pozzoslag in concrete allows very high durability at routine replacement factors in the 55-65% range," said Buddy Pike, president of VHSC Cement.

VHSC Cement developed Pozzoslag to overcome the early set time issues that have historically hindered the use of higher volumes of fly ash and slag in many cement applications. Currently this process is used to produce materials that are currently being used in ready mix concrete, highways, roads, building foundations and precast and concrete products.

Pozzoslag 1.2 from the Limestone facility in Texas meets ASTM C989 performance specifications as a Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS). These products meet Grade 120 slag requirements.

India: Villagers living near an ACC Cement plant in Orissa have accused the company of mismanaging its fly ash. According to the villagers living in Khaliapali, crops have been damaged by runoff fly ash created by a captive power plant at the nearby Bargarh cement plant. The resultant slurry has also spilled into the fields of the neighbouring villages of Banjibahali and Baragad.

Khaliapali villagers have accused ACC Cement of taking over 12 acres of land in the village and forcibly dumping fly ash on it despite protests. They said fly ash has become a nuisance in the village as it covers the houses and village water tank rendering water unfit for human use.

Additional District Magistrate Srinibas Kabi commented that the Regional Office of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) had noted the villagers' concerns. However, OSPCB Regional Officer S S Mishra said they had not received any complaint from the Bargarh administration.

Coal ash seems to be in short supply in the Philippines. Lafarge Republic has signed a deal with a local energy producer to buy coal ash from a new 600MW coal plant.

Although the cost of the deal was not announced, the agreement will run from when the plant starts operation until 2019. This move follows a similar arrangement by Cemex Philippines in June 2012. In that instance Cemex agreed to purchase coal ash from the 200MW Kepco SPC Power Corp plant in Naga, Cebu for US$0.95/t.

Distinctively both arrangements were set up in conjunction with local government. For the Lafarge deal part of the agreement involved donating at least 10,000 bags of cement per month for use in various infrastructure projects of the province. Bataan governor Enrique Garcia put the value of the deal at US$1.19m/yr. For the Cemex deal the Cebu Provincial Government signed the agreement. In November 2009 Cebu Province and Kepco entered into an Ash Disposal Agreement, where Cebu Province was granted exclusive rights to the ash produced by the power plant.

Adding to the suspicion that the Philippines lacks sufficient coal ash, back in the autumn of 2011, the Cement Manufacturers' Association of the Philippines (CeMAP) asked the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to impose mandatory quality standards on raw materials, such as coal ash. This followed accusations by CeMAP that poor quality coal ash might be behind complaints from contractors working on infrastructure projects. In 2009 a DTI profile on the cement industry placed the demand for Portland cement at 73% and the demand for pozzolan cement at 27% of the total.

Cement sales in the Philippines have been steadily growing over the last decade. Lafarge Republic announced in August 2012 that it was increasing its capacity to just below 9Mt/yr in 2013. Around the same time CeMAP released data showing that sales were up 20% year-on-year for the first half of 2012. The local industry reported combined sales of 15.6Mt in 2011. Previous to this, Holcim Philippines announced the US$9.46m upgrade to a previously closed mill in Batangas.

Philippines: Lafarge Republic has signed a deal with the provincial government of Bataan and GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant to buy coal ash from the latter company's 600MW power plant.

Lafarge Republic, formerly Republic Cement, said the deal will start once the power plant begins producing coal ash. It will expire in November 2019. The company didn't provide financial details of the deal.

In a transaction announced in June 2012, Cemex Philippines said it will buy for around US$1 each ton of coal ash to be produced by the 200MW power plant of Korea Electric Power in the central province of Cebu.