We speak to Bernhard Reindl, Plant Manager at HeidelbergCement’s Burglengenfeld plant in Germany, one of the most modern facilities in Europe...
Plant profile
Location: | Burglengenfeld, Bavaria |
Main market: | Bavaria, southern Germany |
Established: | 1912 |
First cement: | 1914 |
First dry line: | 1954 |
Twin KHD lines: | 2000t/day (1968 & 1974) |
Major renovation: | 2017 - 2018 |
Capacity: | 4000t/day (1.3Mt/yr) |
Preheater: | 5-stage, double string |
Kiln: | L = 61m, Ø = 4.8m |
Cooler: | IKN Pendulum, 4000t/day |
Alternative fuels: | >80% (Permit for 100% |
Global Cement (GC): Could you outline the main events in the history of the Burglengenfeld plant?
Bernhard Reindl (BR): The plant was founded in 1912 and it made its first cement in 1914. It received its first preheater kiln in 1954, followed by two 2000t/day four-stage dual string preheater kilns from KHD in 1968 and 1974.
These two lines did the plant proud, but in 2014 a decision was taken to convert one of the two lines to 4000t/day via an extensive upgrade. The other kiln was to be dismantled. The transformation took place in 2016 - 2018 and included a new raw mill department, a new kiln exhaust baghouse and a high-efficiency selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) system, a new 5-stage dual string preheater tower and a new 4000t/day clinker cooler, as well as a new alternative fuel storage and dosing area.
GC: You were Assistant Project Manager at that time. What were the best (and worst) moments?
BR: The best thing I remember is not the technical side, but the team spirit. It was awesome, with experts from HeidelbergCement, the main contractor IKN and cement plant construction expert Hoffmeier Industrieanlagen combining together effectively as one team. For me the first clinker was the best moment. It was close to Easter, so we made commemorative eggs and rabbits using the first cement and gave them to everyone involved.
In terms of set-backs, there was nothing particularly problematic. There were constant time and cost pressures, as there are in any project, with some close calls along the way. However, I think that the effective teamwork was the key that enabled us to navigate the challenges.
GC: Please outline the new production process.
BR: The Burglengenfeld plant’s limestone reserves are part of the Jura lime deposit, a 150 million year old reserve. It has great ratios of calcium and silicon and, to a certain extent aluminium oxide, perfect for cement production.
Quarrying takes place in a ~40 hectare active quarry. The limestone is mined by drilling and blasting, before rock is transported using three 90t dump trucks to a semi-mobile 1600t/hr ThyssenKrupp double rotor hammer crusher. The product from this step passes a Thermo Fisher cross belt analyser. If necessary, mining adjustments can be made to optimise the feed chemistry. The limestone is transported to two covered longitudinal mixing beds and one open mixing bed. Together these share a capacity of 40,000t.
Clay and fly ash are added as an aluminium source and iron is added as an external secondary raw material. After adding these to the limestone, the raw meal feed passes another Thermo Fisher cross belt analyser to two identical MPS 4250 vertical roller mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer, each with a capacity of 200t/hr. The raw meal is stored in eight silos.
After the modernised kiln, the clinker is cooled in an IKN pendulum cooler that has a KIDS® static inlet. The cooler has a cooling surface area of 107m² and is pushed directly by two variable frequency drives via eccentric discs. The plant’s chlorine bypass system is dedusted by a Scheuch fabric filter baghouse and dedusting of the cooler is accomplished by two electrostatic precipitators from ELEX, installed in 2000 and 2001. The clinker is stored in one large clinker silo and a longitudinal storage hall.
GC: How has the plant changed since the revamp?
BR: The plant has now operated in its current form for four years. Over that period, we have continuously tweaked the plant to improve it, find little efficiencies here and there and generally develop it as much as we can.
We recently invested in some minor improvements, like a new fluff transport system from Schenck Process. This has transported fluff from the storage to the calciner since February 2022. Previously the weigh-scale for the fluff was on the kiln hood, with fluff blown all the way along the length of the kiln to be burned in the calciner. This was a sub-optimal solution that limited the flow to 5t/hr. Otherwise there would be blockages. A pipe conveyor from Schenck now runs from the kiln hood to the calciner, with a new weigh-scale at the calciner end. This has enabled us to increase the plant’s overall alternative fuel rate by 3 - 4%. We’ll also invest in a new storage hall and silos for alternative raw materials in 2022.
On top of this, Burglengenfeld is the pilot plant for HeidelbergCement’s Lighthouse project, which aims to digitalise the entire cement production process, from the quarry to cement mills, and beyond. This has several goals: optimisation of plant efficiency; a further decrease in CO2 emissions; and the development of better tools for the operators. This last target is very interesting and could change the kinds of skills that our workforce will need to run the plant in the future.
GC: You just mentioned alternative fuels. Could you please expand on their use at Burglengenfeld?
BR: The first alternative fuel system at Burglengenfeld was for whole tyres in 1988, so the plant was quite an early mover in this area. This was followed by systems for wood chips in 1997, with a conversion to fluff in 2000.
Before they were decommissioned, the KHD kilns were up to around 60% alternative fuels in total, pretty much their technical limit. However, the new kiln has a permit for 100% from the local authorities. In 2021 we achieved an average of 80%, using a mixture of fluff and lignite at the main burner and RDF, fluff and lignite at the calciner.
Today, low calorific value and coarse fluff is fed to two IKN Fire-Bed Combustors (FBC), a pilot technology at this plant. They are essentially a combustor for dense and coarse alternative fuels with a long residence time. They are positioned next to the calciner. Heat transfers from the FBC to the calciner where it is used with the tertiary air. Most of the fuel is only partly combusted in the FBC. When the fuel particles are light enough to fly, they enter the calciner where they burn out completely.
We also feed high calorific value fluff at the main burner and lower calorific coarse fluff at the calciner using a system from Walter Materials handling, part of ATS Group. We aim to control the temperature in the calciner with the same high quality fluff as used in the main burner. We also burn dried sewage sludge. As a primary fuel we use a low proportion of pulverised lignite dust. As a fall-back position, we keep the old coal mill, which we maintain. However, this has not been used since 2018.
We have a near-range target to reach 100% alternative fuels in the calciner and 70-75% in the main burner. This would give the plant an overall alternative fuel rate of around 90%.
GC: What emissions abatement systems are used at the Burglengenfeld plant?
BR: The plant has a high-efficiency selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) system from Lechler and STEAG for NOx to enable the plant to meet the EU standards of 200mg/Nm³ (daily average) for NOx and 30mg/Nm³ (daily average) for NH3. There is also a recently-installed baghouse from Scheuch for dust and a carbon injection system to keep on top of mercury. The plant is very fortunate when it comes to SOx emissions, thanks to the excellent limestone reserves in this part of Germany. There is negligible or even zero sulphur in the raw materials, meaning no need for a SOx abatement system.
GC: What cement types are made at the plant?
BR: This plant produces nine types of cement: limestone cements, slag cements and OPC. To provide the market with cement types with a lower CO2 footprint, we also produce CEM II / B-M cements (clinker factor to as low as 65%) and we will produce CEM II / C-M type cement (minimum clinker factor of 50%) in the future. Both of these products contain ground granulated slag and limestone alongside clinker.
GC: Where are the plant’s main markets and how are they served?
BR: The Burglengenfeld plant mainly serves the Bavarian cement market, predominantly to major cities like Regensburg, Nuremberg and Munich. However, our deliveries have become more competitive further away from the plant in the past couple of years. We used to deliver within a 300km radius, but now some customers are 500km away, or more. This is due to the rising prices of fuel, now exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and CO2 permits within the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which have risen to new heights recently.
In such an economy, the benefits of low-cost production lines are increasingly clear. It is simply most economical to make cement on large, modern lines with high proportions of alternative fuel. We are fortunate at Burglengenfeld that the new line was commissioned when it was.
That said, even our production costs have risen tremendously because we are short of CO2 certificates. This had a very big effect in 2021 where the price for EU ETS permits went through the roof, from around Euro35/t in January 2021 to Euro75/t in December 2021.
In early 2022 it nearly reached Euro100/t but it has since fallen to around Euro80/t again. Accordingly, the plant team is constantly working to produce higher proportions of cement with lower and lower clinker factor. You could say that the ETS is finally doing its job!
GC: How does cement reach the end user?
BR: The majority of customers receive cement by truck, either via our logistics team or their own trucks. Just 4% of our output is bagged cement, which is fairly typical in Germany. Another 4% is delivered as bulk by train to our customers. We are actively seeking further customers that can receive cement by train to lower our delivery emissions.
In 2020 this was slightly affected due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a slight increase in bagged cement deliveries, as many households diverted their disposable income to home renovation instead. This was a small, yet noticeable, temporary change, rather than a seismic shift.
GC: What other Covid-19 effects have there been for the plant?
BR: The initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic were an unsettling time. We faced a lot of restrictions in our daily working lives. Access to the plant was very restricted, with full social distancing and PPE. Staff had to work in small groups, with all communication done remotely. However, the plant and its staff faced all these restrictions and was still able to deliver all cement and clinker needed.
Thankfully today, only masks are required on site. We are open again to visitors, so long as they can provide proof of vaccination, recovery or a recent negative test result.
GC: What are your overall expectations for the German cement market in 2022 and 2023?
BR: There will still be a strong market, especially in southern Germany. Of course, we will have to wait and see how strongly the war in Ukraine affects the German and wider European economy overall in the
months ahead.
GC: What is the biggest threat to the Burglengenfeld plant over the next few years?
BR: Despite the fact that the southern German cement market is stable, there are some substantial headwinds out there. I think that our biggest threats are increasing energy costs, especially now due to the war in Ukraine. This in combination with increasing EU ETS prices might have a negative impact on the cement market. But, in general, that is more a cement sector problem in general rather than a plant-specific issue. Inefficient plants operating in this market may have issues over the coming years.
GC: What’s the biggest opportunity over the same time?
BR: Thanks to our latest modernisation and the precalciner kiln, the Burglengenfeld cement plant is well equipped and has a solid foundation for the future. Further emission reduction and the development of low CO2 cement remain our goals. We are also exploring new opportunities in the digital world. Our industry still has great potential for improvement by adopting digital processes that are already well established in other industries. Both of these aims have been part of the strategy of HeidelbergCement for some time. Together with all other colleagues from HeidelbergCement AG, we will diligently and continuously improve our cement plant in the 2020s and beyond.
GC: Thank you for a great insight into the plant!
BR: Thank you for the opportunity!