Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
Iskitimcement commissions separator unit
08 June 2020Russia: Iskitimcement has completed the modernisation of the grinding plant at its 2.1Mt/yr integrated Iskitimcement plant in Novosibirskskaya following the installation of a closed-circuit dynamic separator and bag filter supplied by Christian Pfeiffer at a cost of US$3.69m. Iskitimcement director general Vladimir Skakun said that the upgrade aims, “to provide customers with separated cement that surpasses the quality of products produced with open-circuit grinding.”
The company said that the closed-circuit unit has increased productivity and reduced the temperature of cement. Dust emissions have fallen by over 90%, bringing the plant in line with current environmental strictures. “We are ready to meet the customers’ demand for quality products even at the peak of the construction season,” said Skakun.
Iskitimcement says that it is planning a modernisation of its stacks with the installation of new filters by 2024.
US: A lawsuit raised by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against CCC Group alleges that black construction workers were subject to racial discrimination and harassment during the construction company’s work on an upgrade at the Lafarge Ravena cement plant in 2016. The EEOC says that the workers were the target of racial language, were threatened and made to carry out more dangerous and physically taxing tasks. It added that it only took legal action after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process.
CCC Group says it investigated the claims from one former employee in 2017 about ‘inappropriate comments’ after it was reported to the EEOC. However, it says that the complaint was never reported internally and that the EEOC refused to share information about the allegations. Subsequently, it was unable to determine what happened. The construction company only became aware of the other allegations when the EEOC filed its lawsuit in June 2020. CCC Group said, “We take all such allegations very seriously and continue to thoroughly investigate these claims. Regardless, CCC Group will continue its commitment to ensure that any such conduct is not tolerated or allowed to occur in our workplaces.”
800 workers were involved in the upgrade to the plant in New York State, which brought it to its present integrated capacity of 2Mt/yr.
This story was updated on 16 June 2020 following comment from CCC Group
India: UltraTech Cement has cuts its capital expenditure budget to around US$130m due to the coronavirus pandemic. Work on its 2.2Mt/yr Cuttack grinding unit, which was scheduled for commissioning in March 2021, has been slowed down. Upgrades at its West Bengal and Bihar grinding plants are nearly completed and a waste heat recovery system (WHRS) at its UltraTech Nathdwara Cement subsidiary will be completed in the current financial year.
The leading Indian cement producer said that government directives in response to the health crisis had ‘adversely’ affected revenue. Since ‘select’ activities were allowed to re-open from 20 April 2020 and the company says it is now, ‘dispatching cement from all locations.’ It added that the majority of demand was currently coming from retail markets as some institutional projects restart construction. It operates 22 operational integrated plants, 23 grinding units and 6 bulk terminals. The company said that ‘conserving cash’ is its motto in 2020.
Eurocement upgrades Pikalevsky Cement plant
01 June 2020Russia: Eurocement has announced the completion of Phase 2 of an upgrade project at its 2.4Mt/yr integrated Pikalevsky Cement plant. Following the modernisation of the grinding unit in the first phase of the upgrade in August 2019 at a cost of US$2.14m, Phase 2 work consisted of an expansion to ‘the assortment of high-quality products,’ including ‘large-scale construction and installation, reconstruction of air supply and aspiration systems and power supply and repair of existing buildings and structures’ at a total cost of US$2.86m. Eurocement completed the upgrade without any downtime to the existing lines.
Pikalevsky Cement director general Andrei Vashchilov said, “We have tested the new cement. The activity of cement at the age of 28 days increased by an average of 10MPa, which allows for cost-optimised concrete production. The modernisation also enabled the improvement and stabilisation of another important indicator - water separation.
US: CalPortland has awarded a supply contract to FLSmidth for a new raw mill at its integrated Mojave plant in California. The scope of supply includes engineering, equipment and installation of a new OK 48-4 Raw Mill with a Condition Monitoring System and an ECS/ProcessExpert system. The mill is scheduled to be in operation in late 2021. No value for the current order has been disclosed.
“The new OK Raw Mill from FLSmidth will increase reliability and efficiency at our Mojave plant," said Bruce E Shafer, Senior Vice President for Cement Operations at CalPortland. It follows the purchase of a FLSmidth OK Cement Mill at the same plant in 2004. FLSmidth added that as both OK mills at the plant will share the same gearbox design, the unit will be able to streamline maintenance and manage inventory costs by sharing the one spare FLSmidth MAAG WPU-200 assembly.
Turkey: HeidelbergCement and Sabancı Holding subsidiary Akçansa has used the coronavirus lockdown period to install a new burner at its Büyükçekmece cement plant in Istanbul, where production has been suspended due to the outbreak. FCT Combustion supplied the burner, which it said will improve ‘combustion, emissions control and clinker quality.’
Akçansa will undertake a burner upgrade on its second kiln during a scheduled stoppage in mid-2020.
US: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has granted permission to Lhoist North America for the installation of a new vertical kiln at its New Braunfels, Texas plant. The company says that the kiln will form the basis for a plant expansion to meet the growing lime demand of the construction and steel sectors.
Lhoist North America chief executive officer (CEO) and president Ron Thompson said, "We are proud that this investment at New Braunfels aligns with our company's commitment to environmentally sustainable growth."
Uzbekistan: Namangan Cement has announced the beginning of work at its 0.3Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Namangan region on a second line to boost the plant’s capacity to 1.2Mt/yr. The National News Agency of Uzbekistan has reported that the project will be completed in late 2021, creating 250 jobs. It will cost US$49m, of which Namangan Cement will provide US$14m directly, with the remaining US$35m taken on loan from Hamkorbank.
Belarus: Krasnoselskstroymaterialy has announced that its US$7.8m refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant at its 1.6Mt/yr Krasnoselskstroymaterialy plant will be completed in September 2020. The plant is installed with equipment worth US$4.5m from Czech suppliers. The Ministry of Construction and Architecture has said that waste from the Grodno Recycling and Mechanical Sorting Plant will replace Belarusian peat and Russian coal as the cement fuel in the plant’s kilns, fulfilling Krasnoselskstroymaterialy’s goals of renewability and national self-reliance.
Ministry of Construction and Architecture energy conservation head Sergey Nikitin said, “The transition to RDF will create an opportunity to reduce the cost of cement production in the future, strengthen the financial and economic situation of the Krasnoselskstroymaterialy enterprise and create additional competitive advantages over producers operating on traditional fossil fuels.”
Canada: Votorantim Cimentos subsidiary St Mary’s Cement has completed a 30m-high stack extension at its 0.8Mt/yr integrated St Mary’s plant in Stonetown, Ontario. The Canadian Press newspaper has reported that the upgrade is a response to increased odour complaints from Stonetown residents.
Votorantim Cimentos St Mary’s plant manager Jose Soraggi said, “Growing along with the community also means adapting along with it. We consider ourselves fortunate to maintain good relations with local residents and the town and to serve as an integral part of the business community in St Marys and Perth County. We take every opportunity to hear from our constituents and find solutions toward a positive and mutually beneficial future. The stack extension is an excellent example of that.”