Displaying items by tag: Waste management

Mexico: Moctezuma inaugurated a US$12m alternative fuels storage system at its Tepetzingo cement plant in Morelos, after two years of engineering, planning and execution. The facility will process over 150,000t/yr of waste, including end-of-life tyres, municipal solid waste and non-recyclable materials, which will replace fossil fuels in cement production, with a goal of 30% substitution by 2030. The company said that the benefits of the project include saving thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill and mitigating methane emissions.

The producer, the Morelos government and the Ministry of Sustainable Development are also developing a circular economy centre in Jiutepec with an additional investment of US$1.6m. The facility will collect, shred and convert up to 3000t/month of tyres into alternative fuels.

Japan: Cement producers used 21.9Mt of post-consumer materials and by-products in the 2024 financial year, down by 3% year-on-year, marking the third consecutive annual decline, according to the Japan Cement Association.

Coal ash and blast furnace slag, which together make up over 50% of the total, both declined, although post-consumer plastics increased for a fourth consecutive year.

Cement production, including clinker for export, also fell by 3% to 45.7Mt. The amount of byproducts used per tonne of cement dropped from 480kg in 2023 to 478kg, but remained above 400kg for the 21st year in a row.

Argentina: The La Metropolitana recycling plant in Donovan despatched 14.1t of end-of-life tyres for industrial co-processing at Cementos Avellaneda’s La Calera plant. The facility uses the tyres as an energy source under a circular economy model. The initiative is promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development to support environmental protection and proper waste management.

Colombia: Holcim Colombia has invested US$2m to modernise its co-processing platform at its Nobsa cement plant in Boyacá. The upgraded facility will process 100,000t/yr of waste into alternative fuels for the cement plant, raising thermal substitution to 40% in the short term, with a target of 70% by 2030.

CEO of Holcim Colombia Martín Costanian said “This project realises our dream of optimising the crushing circuit and scaling our capacity to replace fossil fuels with more sustainable and truly circular solutions.”

The system renovation includes the addition of a shredder with a nominal capacity of 10t/hr, as well as new transfer systems and a modern dosing system capable of feeding up to 20t/hr of alternative fuels to the kiln. The waste used will consist of paper, cardboard, plastics and biomass.

Manager of Geocycle José Méndez said “This project represents true circularity and a solution for the thousands of pieces of waste that end up in landfills each year.”

UK: Titan Group will build and operate a processing and beneficiating facility for ponded fly ash at the former Fiddler’s Ferry power station in Warrington, following a long-term agreement with site owner Peel NRE. The plant will process 300,000t/yr of wet fly ash from 2027, with scope to double the capacity at a later date. Titan will use the material in low-carbon cement, while Peel NRE will receive help to advance restoration of the site. The ash will reportedly meet BS EN 450 quality standards.

Peel NRE director Kieran Tames said “We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Titan, which follows years of hard work fully evaluating the potential to transform the waste ash material from the power station directly into a low-carbon construction product. This agreement has the potential to accelerate the recovery of waste ash from the lagoons, enabling their restoration and enhancement as envisaged by the development framework that was approved by the local authority last year. Through our partnership, existing customers will continue to source ash from the site, ensuring continuity of supply for their applications.”

Japan: Mitsubishi UBE Cement’s joint project with the city of Kitakyushu to pilot carbon recycled materials in public infrastructure has been selected for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s 2024 grant programme.

Centred around the producer’s Kyushu plant in Kurosaki, Kitakyushu, the project will recycle CO₂ and waste cement from local sources for use in municipal construction. Mitsubishi UBE Cement said it aims to establish a model for resource circulation that can be expanded nationwide.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building will begin using hard-to-recycle plastics and wood as alternative fuels in its cement production process during 2025, as part of its ‘front-end firing project’, according to The Post newspaper. The company aims to be 100% coal-free by 2030. It said wood pellets and shredded tyres currently substitute for 50% of coal. The new additions will raise this to 70–80%. Fletcher Building began burning wood pellets in 2003, construction waste in 2010 and tyres in 2023. Fletcher Building said it plays a “significant role in waste diversion for New Zealand."

Spain: Holcim is exploring the use of char as an alternative fuel in cement production as part of the Plastics2Olefins project, in collaboration with Geocycle. The producer is evaluating char samples made from different types of plastic waste.

Geocycle plant manager Cristina Gómez said “Since char properties can vary depending on the feedstock, the company is conducting detailed evaluations – looking at calorific value, moisture content, heavy metals, halogens, and sulphur levels, among other parameters.”

These full-scale industrial tests aim to understand how char behaves during combustion, how it affects emissions of CO₂, NO_x, and SO_x, and whether it impacts the stability of the production process or the quality of the cement. Char samples produced at the Repsol pilot plant are being tested at two of Holcim’s facilities: the Quality Central Laboratory and Geocycle Albox. Gómez added “These comprehensive tests provide a solid understanding of char’s properties and help anticipate how it will perform in real-world industrial conditions.”

Holcim is also experimenting with blends of char and petcoke to optimise energy performance and environmental compliance.

Pakistan: Cherat Cement has submitted a proposal to Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) to use municipal solid waste from the city as refuse derived fuel (RDF) under a public-private partnership. The company said that approximately 500t/day of waste is collected from Peshawar and currently dumped at a 1.6Mt capacity landfill. The initiative would replace coal in cement production and generate revenue for WSSP while tackling the issue of solid waste management.

Uganda: Hima Cement has said that over 50% of its fuel for cement production now comes from renewable biomass instead of heavy fuel oil (HFO). Head of regulatory affairs David Mugagga said that the biomass used to fuel the kilns at Hima Cement’s plants is sourced from coffee husks, palm kernels, rice husks and sawdust. Mugagga also said that the company collects hazardous waste to use as fuel, reducing the amount that goes to landfill.