Displaying items by tag: Plant

Russia: Akkermann Cement, a subsidiary of USM Holding, has acquired Kaluzhsky Tsementny Zavod (Kaluga Cement Plant) for US$111m from state development corporation VEB.RF. VEB.RF provided a loan for construction of the plant in 2011 but the borrower was acknowledged bankrupt in 2018, according to Prime News. The plant is not yet fully built, but it is anticipated that the 3.5Mt/yr facility will create 400 jobs when commissioned.

“The asset is good,” said Akkermann Cement’s managing director Alexander Ivanov. “The dry process is one of the most efficient and budget-friendly technologies for production of cement, but the conclusion of the plant’s construction will need additional investment.”

Germany: Mexico-based Cemex has joined a consortium with Sasol EcoFT and Enertrag that plans to use CO₂ and hydrogen to produce aviation fuel. The project is part of Cemex’s Future in Action program and is part of its plan to develop a carbon neutral operation at its Rüdersdorf cement plant by 2030. The consortium will source green hydrogen generated from wind and solar energy from Enertrag. The CO₂ will come from the Rüdersdorf cement plant, which will provide 100t/day CO₂ in the project’s initial stages. Sasol will then contribute its technology to produce e-kerosene, which, once certified, can be blended to constitute up to 50% of jet fuel.

The Rüdersdorf carbon neutral alliance includes over 20 start-ups, universities, companies from other industries and authorities working to develop industrial-scale solutions achieve the first carbon-neutral cement plant in the world.

Enertrag is a renewable-energy company based in Brandenburg. It operates utility-scale integrated energy plants in 10 countries. Its plants produce electricity and green hydrogen from wind and solar sources.

Sasol EcoFT is part of Sasol Group. It uses its technology to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals from green hydrogen and sustainable carbon sources, via the Power-to-Liquids process.

US: Switzerland-based Elex has completed a cold start-up of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) it has supplied to National Cement’s Ragland plant in Alabama. The ESP will be used for primary dedusting and it has a separation area of approximately 7000m². The cement plant, owned by France-based Vicat, is currently building a new 5000t/day production line that is due to be commissioned in mid-2022.

India: Aumund Engineering India has been selected by ACC to refurbish a 175.3m high bucket elevator, the tallest in the world. The elevator is installed at ACC’s Wadi Cement plant in Karnataka where it is used for raw meal pre-heater transport at a rate of 600t/hr.

Originally, the machine was fitted with a steel cord belt of width 1320mm and tension rating of 3150N/mm. Aumund has decided to offer an alternative based on its own design concept resulting in a belt width of 1300mm but with higher tension rating of 4000N/mm with a bucket size of 1250mm at bucket spacing of 450mm. The Aumund belt concept will use continuous close pitch longitudinal ropes without rope free bucket mounting spaces. However, it will use additional wire ropes running laterally across the width of the belt adding lateral stiffness without significantly changing the belt longitudinal flexibility. This cross-stabilised construction is intended to improve stability to the belt with improved bucket fixing.

To make the necessary belt punching, Aumund has developed a special punching machine design which gives clean fixing holes that are accurately aligned relative to the belt edge and at precisely the correct pitch. The belt is held in a cassette and advanced automatically under the punching frame using a precision encoder to measure the pitch. The belts are prepared at the Aumund production in Rheinberg, Germany and shipped to site at the exact required dimensions including a prepared joint and the required clamping connection.

In addition to the new belt the elevator will also be fitted with new drive pulley including friction linings and rubber bucket mounting strips. The casings, inlet and outlet plus the complete drive unit remain unchanged.
No commissioning date for the project has been announced.

India: UltraTech Cement says it has been declared as the preferred bidder for a limestone block in an electronic auction conducted by the Karnataka government. The block is situated in Tehsil Chittapur of Kalburgi district in Karnataka next to the company’s integrated Rajashree plant. It has a total cement grade geological resource of 530Mt of limestone over an area of 7.86km².

Australia: BGC has started a second attempt to sell the company and has appointed Macquarie Capital to run the process. An indicative bidding round is planned for June 2022, according to the Australian Financial Review newspaper. The process is expected to take up to one year. BGC previously tried to find a buyer in 2018 but legal issues following the death of the company founder Len Buckeridge and a slowdown in the construction market in Western Australia made this difficult.

The company is presenting itself as a major presence in the West Australia cement market, with a 47% share, and the only organisation with a vertically integrated quarry, cement and concrete business. Macquarie Capital says that the company has an annual revenue of around US$740m and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$74m. Group earnings are reportedly mostly generated by heavy building materials, brick and masonry divisions. BGC assets include a cement grinding plant, concrete plants and a gypsum wallboard plant in Perth.

Russia: SibCem subsidiary Angarskcement has restarted kiln four at its plant in Angarsk after a decade of inactivity. The kiln was last used in 2010. The decision to restart the kiln was made in 2021 due to growing demand for building materials in the Irkutsk region and an increase in cement sales. Kiln four was first lit in 1960 and was later upgraded in the early 1980s. It has a clinker production capacity of 720t/day. All four kilns are now running at the cement plant.

Russia: Spasskcement has run kiln two at its plant in Primorye continuously for a record of 330 days. This has beaten the previous best runtime of 324 days set in 2021. The kiln has now been shut down for scheduled repairs including replacing refractory lining and maintenance work on mechanical and electrical equipment. Work is scheduled to be completed by early May 2022.

Malaysia: Borneo Oil has increased its investment in the upcoming ILPP cement plant in Sabah to US$12m. The oil company has signed a deal to buy a 19.5% stake in the cement company from Makin Teguh. Borneo Oil previously bought shares from Makin Teguh in late 2021. The company said it is making the move to benefit from a positive outlook for the cement sector in the Brunei Darussalam–Indonesia–Malaysia–Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area. It estimates that Sabah has a demand of 1.2 – 1.4Mt/yr of cement.

Borneo Oil says it is the largest private owner of limestone reserves of cement grade quality in Sabah. The ILPP plant is located next to a limestone quarry owned by Borneo Oil and a long-term supply contract for the unit is already in place. The ILPP plant will have a cement production capacity of 0.2Mt/yr when it is completed. Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022. The owners say it will be the first integrated plant in Sabah. It will also be the first micro-cement plant in Malaysia that will use heat recovery and a mixture of fuels, including heavy fuel oil and biomass such as a palm kernel shells.

India: A shortage of limestone in the Jammu and Kashmir union territory since December 2021 has resulted in cement plant workers being laid off in Udhampur district. The local sector has lobbied the regional government to supply limestone from state-controlled quarries to fix the situation, according to Asian News International. One cement plant employee interviewed by the news agency said that his plant had laid off around 80 workers from a total of 200 due to the shortage.