Displaying items by tag: Alternative Fuels

Saudi Arabia: Saudi cement producer City Cement Company has announced that it intends to invest US$6.7m in an alternative energy project. The Chinese engineering company Sinoma will carry out the project, anticipated to be completed by 30 June 2015. Without providing further details on the nature of the project, City Cement said that it will use its own funds and/or Murabaha financing to fund it.

South Africa: PPC has concluded an agreement to source waste tyres from the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) for use at its De Hoek cement plant in Piketburg, Westerm Cape. PPC is also investigating the possibility of using waste tyres in some of its other plants, according to Azola Lowan, the executive for investor relations and strategy.

Redisa is the only waste tyre management plan approved by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs and is involved in the collection and processing of waste tyres. Lowan said that the use of the waste tyres in the kilns at the De Hoek plant would be introduced from the middle of 2015 and indications were that the tyres could replace 10% of its coal usage. Lowan also confirmed there was a cost benefit from using the waste tyres instead of coal and a carbon advantage because of the reduced use of coal. Some investment was required in the feeder system to use waste tyres, which meant this initiative would only generate a return over a few years.

Lowan stressed this was one of several environmental and alternative energy initiatives being undertaken by PPC to ensure that PPC is compliant with environmental legislation and regulations by 2020. PPC has already commissioned the use of carbonaceous spent pot liner, a waste material from the aluminium industry, at its Dwaalboom cement plant in Limpopo. "We basically get paid to use that product and again it replaces about 5% of the coal," Lowan said. She added that PPC was also doing a feasibility study on a waste heat recovery (WHR) system at its Dwaalboom plant. PPC also has an agreement with Innowind, which is constructing a 60MW wind farm in the Eastern Cape to provide electricity to PPC's Grassridge quarry.

Colombia: Cementos Argos plans to use more than 26,000t/yr of used tyres generated in the Valle de Aburra region as fuel for its cement plant. Tyres could be incorporated in Cementos Argos processes by the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015. Executives have commented that one of the main obstacles is the collection of used tyres.

Japan: eRex Inc, a power generation company, has agreed to invest US$159m in a biomass power project situated in the premises of Taiheyo Cement plant in Oita Prefecture, Japan. The total installed capacity of the power plant will be 50MW, sufficient to supply 100,000 households. The investment/MW will be US$3.18m. The power plant will use palm shells, a by-product of palm oil production in Indonesia and elsewhere, as its primary fuel. The company will set up a separate storage facility in Oita to hold 100,000t of palm shells. The power plant is expected to be operational in 2016.

Romania: Holcim has completed the extension of its waste co-processing platform in Campulung, Arges County, following a Euro6m investment that was co-funded by the European Union (EU).
The project was implemented throughout 20 months via ecovalor, a Holcim division that specialises in waste management. Of the total Euro6m investment, Euro1.6m came from EU funds under the economic competitiveness programme. Holcim Romania introduced waste co-processing in its cement plants in 2003 and has invested Euro32m in waste processing.

Indonesia: Three state cement manufacturers, PT Semen Indonesia, PT Semen Padang and PT Semen Tonasa, have been using biomass as alternative energy source to replace coal and reduce electrical energy in stages.

Semen Indonesia has won an energy award from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry in recognition of its efforts to diversify energy needs by taking advantage of biomass renewable energy as an alternative fuel and to play an active role in developing new technology and innovations in the energy sector.

"The award has confirmed the commitment of Semen Indonesia to implementing a concept of sustainable business," said Semen Indonesia president director Dwi Soetjipto. He added that the cement industry is an energy-intensive industry, which also consumed coal as non-renewable energy. "By taking advantage of biomass, double goals could be achieved: first, conserving the environment and second, increasing the efficiency of operating costs, which will eventually increase in corporate profitability."

The use of biomass has stimulated local economy because it had been obtained from areas around the plants, including Tuban, Lamongan and Bojonegoro Districts in East Java, as well as Rembang District in Central Java.

"The use of biomass has also helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that the impact of global warming can be minimised," said Soetjipto. Semen Indonesia has always increased its use of biomass as an alternative fuel to reduce coal consumption every year, Soetjipto added.

Egypt: Sinai Cement Company (SCC) has contracted Danish engineering company FLSmidth to provide the equipment for it to start using coal. SCC added that it would also partner with local contractors and suppliers to equip the factory to use coal as an alternative fuel source to natural gas and Mazut fuel oil.

The industrial sector, which is represented by the Federation of Egyptian Industries, has shown signs of accepting recent increases in automotive petroleum products prices, including fuel, diesel and natural gas. The sector said that it would bear the cost of the energy price increases taking into account the current economic situation 'that doesn't allow for any alternative.'

Following the fuel price hike announcement, the government has raised gas prices for cement plants to US$8 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) compared to US$6 previously. The price of fuel oil increased from US$209/t to US$315/t.

Despite the Ministry of Environment's opposition, the interim government approved the industrial use of coal as an alternative energy source in April 2014. The move came to address the energy shortage, pending the endorsement of the Environmental Impact Assessment. After issuing the decision, the government said that it would impose a tax on coal usage, while also amending laws and tightening penalties for violating environmental standards and regulations.

Minister of Industry Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said that importing coal would not start until the environmental standards and regulations for the industrial use of coal have been finalised and ratified. However, cement plants have already started taking steps towards this. In a bid to shift to coal usage, the Arabian Cement Company commenced testing coal in June 2014 in thermal power generation. It aims to shift to this energy source for 50% of its needs. Suez Cement also recently announced plans to invest US$14.9m to convert two of its four cement plants to use coal. The conversion process for each plant will cost around US$21m.

Canada: Pond Biofuels has set up a bioreactor pilot plant at St Marys cement plant in St Marys, Ontario. The raw smokestack gas from the cement plant is recycled to grow algae in a third-generation 25,000L bioreactor at the on-site pilot plant. The resulting algae can be used for bio-oil, food, fertiliser and sewage treatment.

The algae consume CO₂, NO_X and SO_X from the smokestack gas. Every 1kg of algae produced prevents 2kg of CO₂ from being emitted into the atmosphere. The St Marys Cement Plant produces 720,000t/yr of cement and 540,000t/yr of CO₂. Currently, Pond Biofuels only uses a small portion of the total CO₂ output.

"We consider ourselves a carbon recycling technology," said Steve Martin, founder of Pond Biofuels.

The algae thrive in light filled, CO₂-rich conditions, which are provided in the bioreactor. The light comes from custom-designed red LED lights that flash continuously. The rapid flashing fools the algae into thinking the days are very short, so it grows very fast. "The algae evolve quite quickly; we can get four, five, six generations of algae in a day," said Martin.

Proving the production of algae at commercial scale is important, but the other important part is finding a market for the algae. "Between 10 – 20% of it is oil that be used for producing biodiesel," said Martin. It could also be used a coal replacement, a soil amendment or even animal feed and it can be easily dried using waste heat from the cement plant.

Namibia: Namibia's Ohorongo Cement plant plans to use blackthorn as biofuel for cement production. The company sources some 30% of its energy requirements from biofuel and plans to raise this figure to 80%.

"In the long term we will be very competitive," said Ohorongo Cement's chairman, Gerhard Hirth. Not having to rely on coal and oil imports, Ohorongo Cement will be able to keep energy costs down while making a positive contribution to the environment.

Hirth has invested US$340m in the 600,000t/yr capacity Ohorongo Cement plant. Some 500,000t/yr is sold on the domestic market and the rest is exported to Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Ohorongo Cement employs 330 people directly and 2500 indirectly.

Ohorongo Cement is currently under threat from a new market player. In order to side-step the 60% levy on cement imports into the country, a Chinese cement producer has recently begun operations at its own plant in Namibia. According to Hirth, Ohorongo Cement has lost more than Euro30m and is undertaking legal proceedings against its rival.

Canada: Lafarge is moving ahead with an attempt to use plastic waste instead of coal at its Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. Scarth MacDonnell, Brookfield's plant manager, appeared before Colchester County council to inform them of the plant's intent to use plastic waste as a low-carbon fuel.

"We think we have found a solution to the very real problem of plastics that build up in landfills," said MacDonnell. "We hope to get 30% substitution of coal." MacDonnell added that the emissions are safe and meet or exceed provincial and federal government standards.

The plant will submit an application to Nova Scotia's Department of Environment for an industrial trial replacing coal with shredded plastics. It will also host an open house on 17 July 2014 for people who want to learn more about and talk about the idea.

MacDonnell said that a study by the province's Department of Natural Resources indicates that there is 79,000t/yr of plastic going into landfills in Nova Scotia and that a study by Dalhousie University states that using plastics reduces carbon dioxide emissions up to 34% and other greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by as much as 98%.