Displaying items by tag: Study

Georgia: Oman’s Raysut Cement has approved an initial study to consider building a 1Mt/yr cement plant in Georgia. The company’s subsidiary Pioneer Cement Industries Georgia owns a limestone mine with reserves of over 30Mt about 60km from Tiblisi. A final decision on the project is expected to be made by June 2018. Discussions have also commenced with possible partners for both equity participation and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracting.

Argentina: Loma Negra is considering using two trailer trucks or b-trains. The study follows a government relaxation concerning their usage in January 2018, according to the El Cronista newspaper. The cement producer is looking at using the longer trucks for both input materials and cement shipments. Due to a strong market locally most of the company’s 5.5Mt/yr cement production capacity is sold domestically.

US: The Portland Cement Association (PCA) expects that increased demand for air travel will help drive increased cement consumption over the next 25 years. Increased population, economic growth and airport expansion are anticipated to drive the trend according to a new study by the association. Personal, business and cargo levels are all expected to rise.

“With more people traveling by air, you will need more capacity at airports – that means more cement is needed for concrete used in runways, terminals and other airport facilities,” said PCA Chief Economist and Senior Vice President Ed Sullivan.

The PCA expects cement consumption in the airports market to approach 2.4Mt/yr by 2040, with a possible high of 2.6Mt/yr, compared with 1.5Mt/yr at present. Of the estimate 65% will likely be attributed to runway replacement, 23% is projected to runway expansion projects and 11% is expected to be used for new terminal expansion.

Norway: Norcem, part of HeidelbergCement Group, has awarded a contract for a concept study of carbon capture at its Brevik cement plant to Aker Solutions. It previously carried out testing with a pilot capture plant at Brevik. Norcem subsequently selected Aker Solutions' technology to be used for a potential facility at the cement plant. The oil and gas engineering company has also won a carbon capture contract from Yara to run a study at its Herøya ammonia plant.

"Aker Solutions can now offer carbon capture plants at lower costs and with less energy demand using a new non-corrosive and environmentally-friendly solvent that has very low degradation," said Oscar Graff, head of carbon capture and storage (CCS) at Aker Solutions. "The solvent is very robust and can be used for various types of flue gases and gives minimum emissions and waste products."

The study for Norcem will design a carbon capture plant that's integrated with the cement factory, including a process to turn the CO₂ into liquid and storage facilities that can be used before shipping. The plant will have a capacity of about 400,000t/yr of CO₂. The Yara study will design and develop a capture plant for the reformer flue gas and will also include liquefaction. Both concept studies are set to be completed in September 2017.

In April 2017 Gassnova, a state-run company for carbon capture and storage, announced the start of the concept studies as part of a goal to establish a complete CCS chain, including capture, transport and permanent storage, by 2022. The concept phase will also seek to establish more accurate cost estimates. The next phase in the process will involve front-end engineering design (FEED) work until around mid-2018 before an investment decision is made by the Norwegian government in the first half of 2019.

Aker Solutions has developed and qualified an improved carbon capture technology since 2008, investing in research and development, testing and operations. The company has gathered experience through design, construction and two years of operations of an amine plant at Technology Centre Mongstad and carried out tests in the US, the UK and Norway using its mobile carbon capture pilot plant.

Ethiopia: Messebo Cement has hired Industrial Projects Service (IPS), a state-owned consultant, to conduct an assessment of the cement market around Addis Ababa. It wants to explore the feasibility of opening a grinding plant where semi-processed clinker from Tigray will be processed to produce cement.

"The project is mainly intended to minimise the transportation cost incurred from Mekelle to Addis Ababa, which is US$24.5 – 33.7/t, and hence to enable the plant to compete with existing cement plants in the city," said Kidane Tekelehaimanot, Messebo's deputy project manager. Mekelle is 770km away from Addis Ababa. The Addis plant, if opened, would receive and crush the semi-processed clinker by mixing it with additives, which account for 30% of the total amount currently transported from Mekelle. The Mekelle plant produces 83% of its 2.24Mt/yr cement production capacity.

Messebo is the second company after newcomer Habesha Cement to undertake a market study. Habesha, which has a designed production capacity of 2.5Mt/yr, has hired Waas International Consulting to assess the current and future demand and supply of cement, as well as to determine the need of for expansion. Dangote and Derba Midroc cement plants are also planning expansions, with Derba intending to double its 2.3Mt/yr production capacity.