CBV case-studies
Compagnie Belge de Ventilateurs (CBV), located in Esneux near Liège in southern Belgium is a supplier of fans for heavy industry, including the cement industry. It has expertise in radial and axial fans, standard lightweight fans and can build custom equipment for specific customer requirements.
The diameter of its fans ranges from 25cm all the way up to 5m, with power ranging between 0.5kW to 7000kW, withstanding temperatutres up to 850°C.
CBR Lixhe, Belgium
In 2010 CBV undertook the replacement of the rotor of the kiln ID fan at CBR's Lixhe plant in Belgium, which had become worn.
The flow rate was 1,019,000m3/hr and the motor power was 3000kW. CBV recommended a rotor with higher efficiency, which resulted in a reduction of 190kW, more than 6%.
Cementa Slite, Sweden
At the end of 2009 CBV replaced a booster fan at Cementa's Slite plant in Sweden, upgrading it from 1000rpm to 1500rpm to increase capacity.
The flow rate was 1,242,000m3/hr and the motor power was 3250kW. The company replaced the fan in just a 13-day plant shutdown.
Oil well cement at CCB
As well as traditional cements, the CCB plant at Gaurain-Ramecroix has made CEMOIL-brand oil well cements for the oil industry since 1954. It produces the brand, in collaboration with its sister Italcementi plants in Trieste (Italy), Tourah (Egypt), Shymkent (Kazakhstan) and Jalaprathan (Thailand), and was the first European plant to receive approval for its products from the American Petroleum Institute.
Oil well cement is highly specialised because it has to set several km below the earth's surface, handle pressures up to 1500 times that at sea level and at over 220°C.
Lagan Cement acquires Zeeland Cement
Lagan Cement is a cement producer based in County Meath, Ireland, which operates one of the most modern cement manufacturing facilities in Europe. In 2011, as part of its strategy to diversify from declining domestic markets, Lagan Cement acquired Zeeland Cement, a well-established cement sales company based in the Netherlands. As Zeeland already had a reputation for supplying quality products to an existing market, the acquisition was deemed to fit well with Lagan Cement's passion for producing and delivering quality cement.
HCM Cement - A modern supplier of tailor-made cement
Hollandse Cement Maatschappij (HCM Cement) is a Dutch supplier of cement and part of the Zwolle-based Van der Kamp group. The storage and handling facility for cement in Moerdijk was added to the company in 1995 to deliver cement both to its own concrete mixing plants and to concrete mixing plants and precast facilities owned by others. HCM Cement has one of the largest and most modern terminals for cement in western Europe. Very recently the storage capacity was expanded by 14,000t to a total of 50,000t.
Immediately following its establishment, much of HCM's cement was imported from Italy, Lithuania, Turkey and Indonesia. Nowadays, thanks to its own mixing installation, fewer imports take place. Portland cement is still supplied from abroad for direct resale and because it is necessary as a component in other cements like blast furnace cement. Other components such as fly ash and slag are bought domestically.
HCM's commercial manager Bart Neppelenbroek says, "The product properties of each cement justify its right to exist. Blast furnace cement is very suitable for use in aggressive environments, for example in stables or near the shore. Portland cement hardens quicker, which means that it is frequently used in the production of precast concrete."
Aside from producing blast furnace cement, HCM Cement has the possibility to transport its cement to the customer by self-unloading barges, a means of transport that is environmentally friendly.
The terminal at Moerdijk
HCM Cement's terminal in Moerdijk can be accessed by tankers or bulk carriers of up to 12,000t, with loading/unloading of vessels or trucks taking place 24/7. An advanced system allows customers to load the right product in exactly the desired quantity at any time. Delivery by HCM Cement is 'just-in-time.' Currently HCM Cement offers six standard cement products that are continuously available for purchase.
Thanks to extensive automation, the entire terminal is operated by a staff of just four people. All the processes in the terminal are controlled and monitored by computers. This guarantees a consistently high cement quality and makes HCM Cement extremely cost-effective.
New investment
Until recently the Moerdijk terminal had 11 cement storage silos with a total capacity of 36,000t. In the past year, two new silos have been built at the site. The new silos were taken into operation in the autumn of 2011 and offer HCM Cement the opportunity to work even more flexibly. Neppelenbroek does not rule out a future expansion of the product range due to this new capacity.
Mixing plant
Thanks to its own blending facility ,HCM is able to produce customised binder mixtures to suit individual customer requirements, especially for larger projects, where it may be pertinent for customers to lower costs or adjust the properties of the cement. Thanks to the compact size of HCM Cement, it is possible to deal flexibly with customer requirements.
In this way HCM Cement can build strong relationships with a wide range of customers across the concrete, floor-screed, construction and infrastructure industries.
Suppliers to the Moerdijk terminal
Ellimetal: Silo installation
Bos Wieldrecht: Silo and filter construction
Barth Installatietechniek BV: Electrical installation
Croon: Computer systems
Enbo: Discharging of vessels
Van Aalst Bulk Handling
Van Aalst Bulk Handling BV is a Dutch company concerned with transport and handling of bulk materials around the world. Here, a fly-ash additive is being removed from a barge in Bangladesh using an ingenious Van Aalst pneumatic ship unloading system, which uses an adaptable suction arm to circumnavigate problems with hard-to-reach areas inside the barge.
