Displaying items by tag: Alternative Fuels

Austria: Data from the Austrian Cement Industry Association (VÖZ) shows that cement production rose by 7.4% year-on-year to 5.2Mt in 2018. The increase has been attributed to a construction boom. Sales of cement grew by 4.7% to Euro432m. Sales continue to increase at a similar rate in the first quarter of 2019 but this has slowed down in the second quarter.

The association has said that environmental investment more than doubled in 2018 to Euro45m. The local industry’s alternative fuels substitution rate was 82% and CO₂ emissions fell by 0.8% to 521kg/t of cement.

Spain: Pedro Carranza, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Grupo Cementos Portland Valderrivas, has been named as the president of Fundación Laboral Andaluza del Cemento y el Medio Ambiente (FLACEMA). He succeeds Francisco Zunzunegui, who has held the post since late 2017. FLACEMA promotes the co-procesing of waste by the Andalusian cement industry. It was set up in 2003 by the Association of Manufacturers of Cement of Andalusia (AFCA) and a group of major unions.

Philippines: Republic Cement and Nestlé Philippines have signed an agreement to co-process Nestlé’s post-consumer plastic waste in Republic Cement’s cement kilns. The deal was signed by Nestlé Philippines’ Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki, its Corporate Affairs Head Attorney Ernesto Mascenon and Republic Cement’s Renato Sunico and Nabil Francis, CEO of Republic Cement Services. In April 2018, Nestlé globally announced a commitment that 100% of its packaging will be recyclable or reusable by 2025. The company's vision is that none of its waste ends up in landfill or as litter.

“Nestlé is aiming for plastic neutrality, essentially recovering plastics equal to what we produce,” said Kais Marzouki. “Aside from our current collection and recycling initiatives, we believe this effort will help us gather and co-process bigger volumes of post-consumer waste. We target to divert more post-consumer waste from landfills and the ocean. This partnership will contribute positively in helping clean up the Philippines.”

“We are happy to partner with Nestlé Philippines and to help address the pollution from residual plastics and sachets,” said Nabil Francis. “This is a win-win situation for us and the environment. Together, we can build a greener, stronger republic.”

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim reduced its net CO₂ emissions per tonne of cementitious material by 1% year-on-year to 576kg CO₂/t in 2018 from 582kg CO₂/t in 2017. It said that the improvement was achieved by reducing the clinker-to-cement ratio and consuming less energy per tonne of cement, mostly by using alternative fuels and improving the efficiency of the company’s processes. However, data from its Sustainability Report 2018 shows that both its overall gross and net emissions grew. Its net CO₂ emissions from cementitious material increased by 2.5% to 121Mt. At the same time its clinker production rose by 2.7% to 151Mt from 147Mt.

The group increased its treatment of waste-derived resources to 52Mt. its alternative raw material substitute rate grew to 11.2% from 10.7%. It established a new pre-processing facility in Madukkarai in India and upgraded its waste handling capacities in Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, India, Canada, Spain and Germany. It also reduced its freshwater withdrawal for cement production and improved its lost time injury rates.

RHI Magnesita has taken the step this week of raising its prices globally by 5% for its products for its industrial and steel divisions. It has applied the increase to both its basic (magnesia and dolomite based) and non-basic products, varying in a range of 3% to 20%. It has blamed this on a global scarcity of raw materials caused mostly by Chinese environmental regulations on mining and processing. It goes on to attribute the issue to increased export taxes, more restrictive allocation of explosives and the nationalisation or controlled consolidation of mining operations in China. All of this has, “...structurally altered the production, pricing and dynamics for industrial minerals.”

Graph 1: Revenue in 2018 from industrial divisions at selected refractory producers. Source: Company reports.

Other major refractory producers, including Imerys and Vesuvius, reported similar mounting raw material costs in 2018. They also implemented price changes to maintain income and/or sales growth. As can partly be seen in Graph 1 some of the major refractory producers reported mixed fortunes in 2018 for their divisions that produce products for the cement industry.

RHI Magnesita noted that 2018 was a year of steady refractory market growth and relative stability for cement and lime from a global market perspective, with some significant variances on a regional basis. Imery’s Energy Solutions & Specialties division suffered due to flat markets. However, its High Resistance Materials division (not shown in Graph 1) benefited from the ongoing integration of Kerneos into the group. The group restructured its businesses at the end of 2018 creating a High Temperature Materials & Solution segment that brings together its various refractory concerns. Vesuvius' Steel Advanced Refractories division, which include monolithic products, reported particular growth in the Americas in 2018. Although it noted some market share loss in North Asia and in certain European countries, the latter due in price increases.

Refractories aren’t the only material or commodity used by the cement industry that has been distorted by Chinese domestic policy. Regulations on imports of waste streams including plastics started in 2017 leading to European and US suppliers struggling to find alternate markets. One implications of this appears to have been waste firms focusing on separating plastic into high and low calorific fractions to fight the downward price trends of a market glut. The outcomes are different but the sheer size and variety of China’s economy is increasingly affecting the cement industry in new and different ways.

RHI Magnesita’s travails in China and the debacle of waste imports bring to mind the quote by the 19th century Austrian diplomat Klemens von Metternic, ‘When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold.’ Metternic was referring to Napoleonic-era France and its aftermath. The modern version may have been used to reference the US but maybe it should be instead, ‘When China sneezes, the world catches a cold.’ Gesundheit.

Indonesia: Indocement is aiming for 4% growth in sales year-on-year to around US$1.12bn in 2019 due to sluggish cement consumption. This compares to 5% growth in revenue in 2018. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement expects demand to increase in the second half of 2019 following elections, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper. It predicts that cement consumption will be driven by government infrastructure projects and the construction of residential projects and buildings. It plans to spend up to US$70m towards setting up a quarry in West Java and completing new cement terminals.

The cement producer is also preparing to increase its thermal substitution rate with alternative fuels like refuse-derived fuel (RDF). This follows a 50% rise in production costs due to coal in 2018. In September 2018 to agreed to buy 500t of RDF from the West Java government.

India: A report by the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) shows that the local cement sector is on track to meet its 2030 targets from the low carbon technology roadmap (LCTR). Direct CO₂ emission intensity fell by 5% in 2017 in the Indian cement sector compared to the 2010 baseline. CO₂ emission intensity, including onsite or captive power plant (CPP) power generation, was reduced by 6.8% compared to the 2010 baseline. The alternative fuels thermal substitution rate (TSR) increased by 5 times from 2010 to 2017. The sector consumed more than 1.2Mt of alternative fuels in 2017.

“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. In our globalised and interconnected world, no one can solve alone the challenges ahead of us and the only opportunity to succeed is through collaborative partnerships, where the common interests of all are considered as more important than the sum of individual interests. This is exactly the spirit that has animated the CSI’s low carbon journey since 1999. This flagship project - with its members - has developed, implemented and shared collective solutions for measuring, reporting and improving its greenhouse gas reduction performance, year after year,” said Philippe Fonta, managing director CSI.

The CSI and the International Energy Agency (IEA) worked with nine local CSI member companies - ACC, Ambuja Cements, CRH, Dalmia Cement (Bharat), HeidelbergCement, Orient Cement, Shree Cement, UltraTech and Votorantim Cimentos - to carry out the status review on the sector’s performance trends, continuous implementation measures and notable achievements based on the milestones set in the 2013 LCTR. The Status Review Report was developed in consultation with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with support from International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

The findings of the report show that the direct CO₂ emission intensity was reduced by 32kgCO₂/t cement to 588kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 mainly due to an increased use of alternative fuel and blended cement production, coupled with a reduction in clinker replacement factor. However, the study also shows that significant efforts will be needed to meet the 2050 objectives of 40% reduction. The CO₂ emission intensity (including onsite or CPP power generation) has reduced by 49kgCO₂/t cement to 670kgCO₂/t cement in 2017 compared to the baseline year. The report has highlighted the adoption of waste heat recovery (WHR) systems by local cement plants.

The alternative fuels TSR increased to 3% in 2017 from 0.6% in 2010. More than 60 cement plants in India have reported continual usage of alternative fuels, with 24% of the total alternative fuels consumed as biomass. The share of blended cements used in the total quantity of cement manufactured increased to 73% in 2017 from 68% in 2010, largely due to the market’s growing acceptance of blended cement, emerging awareness of sustainability concepts, the availability of fly ash from thermal power plants and the use of advanced technology. The production of Pozzolana Portland Cement grew to 65% in 2017 from 61% in 2010. The share of Portland Slag Cement in cement production remained flat, at less than 10%, over the same period. The clinker factor reduced to 0.71 in 2017 from 0.74 in 2010.

In August 2018 the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) said it was taking over the work previously done by the CSI from 1 January 2019.

US: Bulk Handling Systems (NHS) has appointed Matthias Erdmannsdoerfer as managing director of Max-AI. Prior to this new role, Erdmannsdoerfer worked for more than six years as the president of National Recovery Technologies (NRT), a developer of optical sorting technology and subsidiary of BHS. In his new role Erdmannsdoerfer will be responsible for the Max-AI product line including sales, business development and product and application development.

Launched by BHS in 2017, Max-AI technology powers robotic sorters, optical sorters and reporting systems, and will continue to be integrated into new and existing equipment throughout material recovery facilities (MRFs). Since its inception, more than 50 Max-AI AQC (Autonomous Quality Control) robotic sorters have been sold in quality control (QC) applications of both fibre and containers.

Germany: Environmental data from the German Cement Works Association (VDZ) show that average nitrogen dioxide emissions (NO₂) from cement production dropped below 300mg/Nm³ in 2017. The value has more than halved since 2000. Other data from the ‘Environmental Data of the German Cement Industry 2017’ report shows that fossil fuels usage by the cement industry fell to 35% in 2017 compared to 45.6% in 2008.

"By consistently promoting the development of clinker-efficient cements, German cement manufacturers are noticeably reducing the carbon footprint as compared to traditional Portland cements," said VDZ President Christian Knell.

Knell also warned that the costs of carbon capture technologies should not be allowed to jeopardise the competitiveness of domestic cement manufacturers and give rise to ‘undesirable’ carbon leakage effects. The industry is currently researching methods to further reduce CO₂ emissions such as carbon capture, storage and utilisation techniques, but it is dependent on external financing.

18 German cement manufacturers with a total of 46 cement plants are members of the VDZ. The local industry employs around 8000 people.

China: Huaxin Cement’s sales rose by 27% year-on-year to US$1.75bn in the first half of 2018 from US$1.38bn in the same period in 2017. Its net profit nearly tripled to US$304m from US$107m. Its cement and clinker sales volumes grew by 1.13% to 32.2Mt.

The cement producer said that it had been challenged by raw materials and fuel price rises and kiln suspensions due to government-mandated peak shifting production during the reporting period. However, measures such as higher alternative fuels co-processing rates and efficiency gains helped to bolster its financial performance. Its kiln waste processing volumes increased by 18.4% to 0.68Mt.

The company added that its Tibet Shannan 3rd Phase 3000t/day clinker production line was ‘proceeding smoothly’ and was scheduled to start operation by the end of August 2018. Its 4000t/day Yunnan Luquan clinker line and 2.85Mt/yr Huangshi clinker replacement line projects have started construction. In Nepal a 2800t/day clinker line is scheduled to start construction by the end of the year. It is also working on municipal solid waste (MSW) projects in Wuhan Changshankou and Lijiang.