Displaying items by tag: Emissions
Hima to install US$3.2m bag filter upgrade at Kasese by May 2013
06 February 2013Uganda: Hima Cement has decided to spend US$3.2m to upgrade its bag filter technology at its Kasese cement plant in western Uganda. The move follows a history of complaints from local communities over dust emissions. The upgrade will be installed at the factory's old production line, which plans to bring stack emissions in line with global standards. It is expected to be completed by May 2013.
"We are confident that this time round the problem of emissions will become a thing of the past since the same technology was installed at our Bamburi Cement factory in August 2012," said David Njoroge, Hima Cement general manager.
The upgrade is the second attempt that Hima Cement has made at its old line in Kasese. Previously an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) failed due to frequent power cuts. In 2011 Kasese's new production line, which uses bag filter technology, was opened to increase cement production capacity from 300,000t/yr to 850,000t/yr.
Lafarge produces Aether clinker for first time
16 January 2013France: Lafarge has announced that it has completed a industrial-scale trial to make Aether®, its new generation clinker formulated for lower carbon cements and has 25-30% lower CO2 emissions than normal clinker.
The trial mobilised a team of around 100 people over a 10-day period at the group's plant in Le Teil, France. It allowed the production of 10,000t of Aether clinker and, according to a Lafarge press release, confirmed the feasibility of industrial-scale production using traditional raw materials.
The result of several years of research by Lafarge's research and development teams, the new clinker offers similar properties to OPC and can be produced in traditional cement plants after minor process adjustments. However, it has a lower overall environmental footprint, which is derived from having a lower limestone content in the raw mix, a kiln temperature in the region of 1300°C and lower-energy grinding.
Following sustained CO2 emission reductions since the early 1990s, Lafarge says that the Aether project will help it to reduce CO2 emissions per tonne of cement by 33% by 2020, one of its Sustainability Ambitions 2020 targets.
The first Aether products will be launched in 2014.
Environmentalists could sue over EPA cement standards
07 January 2013US: Washington-based news agency InsideEPA has reported that environmentalists may be preparing to sue the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its revised emissions limits for the cement sector because the rules largely adopt weaker limits and extended compliance deadlines that had been sought by the industry. The agency says that critics warn that the ruling will create more toxic air emissions and criteria pollutant emissions that pose significant risks to public health.
"By the EPA's own numbers, that delay will cause between 1920 and 5000 Americans to die prematurely from exposure to cement plants' soot pollution. The rules will also allow cement plants to pump an additional 15,000kg of mercury into the environment," said one environmentalist quoted by Inside EPA, citing the EPA's data.
The EPA had faced a 20 December 2012 consent decree deadline to issue the rules, which revise its national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) air toxics limits and new source performance standards (NSPS) criteria pollutant controls for the sector. The rules address a cement sector push for reconsideration of the NESHAP and NSPS as set in 2010, in addition to a federal appeals court ruling partly remanding the 2010 rulemaking to EPA.
In June 2012 the EPA proposed to revise the rules by weakening the particulate matter (PM) limit for new and existing kilns. It also proposed to extend the compliance deadline for the air toxics standards from 2013 to 9 September 2015. Both measures were sought by the cement sector, which argued that the 2010 rules were too stringent.
Environmental groups, including Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed comments criticising the proposal as unlawfully weak under the Clean Air Act, and opposing the changes.
It now looks likely that the revised cement rules will prompt a lawsuit from these and other environmental groups given their warnings in written comments that the proposed version was unlawful under the Clean Air Act.
In contrast, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) President Greg Scott has welcomed the rules, saying that they, "Will provide PCA members and the cement industry the additional time needed for compliance with the revised standards. Such time is essential to properly complete the planning, engineering, permitting, testing and construction of the various new technologies that will be necessary to implement the revised standards."
He added that the rules, while now achievable, were still 'extremely challenging.' mitigating fears that the industry could sue over their implementation.
Has MACT been sent for review?
12 December 2012US: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent final revisions to its Portland cement sector air toxics and criteria pollutant emissions rulemaking for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pre-publication review, according to industry sources. This could indicate that the agency might meet a looming 20 December 2012 consent decree deadline for issuing the proposal.
Industry sources say that the rule, which will revise EPA's 2010 maximum achievable control technology (MACT) standards for air toxics emissions and a related new source performance standard to cut criteria pollutants, was received at OMB either on 4 or 5 December 2012, although an EPA spokeswoman declined to say whether the rule has been sent for OMB review. She only said that the agency was, "Working on the rule and (plans) to finalise by 20 December 2012."
The 20 December 2012 deadline stems from a settlement with the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and others in the industry to propose a revision to the rules, a response in part to industry petitions for reconsideration. Cement manufacturers claimed that the 2010 rules' particulate matter (PM) limits were not achievable, among other concerns.
In addition to addressing the reconsideration petitions and other aspects of the settlement, the rule will also respond to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's December 2011 ruling in PCA v EPA remanding the rule to the agency. The court found that EPA had failed to reconsider how a related incinerator air rule may potentially alter the cement rule's emission limits and that the agency failed to give 'sufficient notice' of its final standards for open clinker storage piles.
In the 22 June 2012 proposed revisions to the rule, the EPA proposed to weaken the particulate matter (PM) limit for existing kilns from 18.14g/t (0.04lb/t) of clinker to 31.75g/t (0.07lb/t) of clinker and the limit for new kilns from 4.5g/t (0.01lb/t) of clinker to 9.0g/t (0.02lb/t) of clinker. The EPA also proposed to extend the MACT's compliance deadline to 9 September 2015, saying, "We believe that this date would require compliance 'as expeditiously as practicable'" as required by the Clean Air Act.
Several environmental groups have argued that the revisions are unlawful, both exceeding the changes required by the DC Circuit's narrow ruling and watering down the cement standards for 'unknown reasons.' In comments made on 17 August 2012 regarding the proposed reconsideration the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and other environmental groups said that the compliance delay is arbitrary and capricious given that EPA failed to adequately justify it. They added that the delay, "Will greatly exacerbate the harm that EPA already has caused and the suffering that ordinary Americans have had to endure," given that the EPA was supposed to update the cement MACT in 1997.
Update: The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website shows that the OMB received the revised EPA MACT standards on 6 December 2012.
New continuous mercury gas emissions analyser from SICK
06 December 2012UK/US: In anticipation of tighter regulations for mercury emissions, SICK has developed the new MERCEM300Z mercury measuring system, a high-accuracy continuous-flow gas analyser for emissions down to the 0–45µg/m3 range from a wide range of combustion sources.
According to SICK, the patented gas spectrum of the MERCEM300Z rapid monitoring system offers superior performance with better long term, drift-free accuracy and lower running costs. The system requires minimal maintenance, is self adjusting and uses no chemical consumables.
"Awareness of the pollution caused by mercury and its compounds in combustion emissions is increasing in the UK and Europe," explained John Exford, Process Automation Division Manager, SICK (UK). "From power generation, cement kilns and hospital waste to crematoriums, the need to tighten up on mercury will be very important in 2013, when the EU will be following the United Nations lead in a world-wide treaty."
Mercury emissions are a particularly pertinent issue in the US cement industry, which will experience tighter mercury level controls in 2013.