Displaying items by tag: Environment

Spain: Following a partial easing of Spain’s coronavirus lockdown on 25 May 2020, LafargeHolcim España employees returning to the company’s Villaluenga de la Sagra cement plant in Toledo, Castile-La Mancha were surprised to discover that an Iberian lynx had moved in during the 2.4Mt/yr integrated plant’s 10-week suspension due to the coronavirus lockdown. Staff contacted the Castile-La Mancha Environmental Agency, which determined that the site was ‘not an ideal habitat’ for lynx due to the risk presented by vehicles inside and outside of the cement plant when operations resume. The Castile-La Mancha Environmental Agency has tweeted that it has released the one-year-old female cat at a secret location in the Montes de Toledo region, following a medical check-up and tagging.

India: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has asked the government to restart home and road building to help cement producers. The Press Trust of India newspaper has reported that all construction work has stalled since 25 March 2020 due to the coronavirus lockdown. The FICCI believes that Indian cement demand is currently set to decline by 10-12% year-on-year. To relieve the sector, the FICCI urged the Indian government to lift the lockdown in metropolitan areas in order to allow the continuation of residential construction, which accounts for 60-65% of cement demand.

To protect domestic producers from any import dumping post-crisis, the FICCI has suggested that Indian cement sales should be subsidised. It also requested a ‘relaxation of environmental emission norms’ until mid-2022 ‘to save the industry from additional capex expenses.’

Norway: Private accreditation body DNVGL has certified Aker Solutions’ 400,000t/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) system installation at Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Norcem’s 1.2Mt/yr integrated Brevik plant in Telemark as safe. HeidelbergCement Northern Europe director of sustainability and alternative fuels Per Brevik said, “The promising results from pilot testing in Brevik give us confidence that realisation of the full-scale capture plant will be successful. We trust that the project risk related to novel technology elements is low.”

Following an 18-month test of the partial installation, the certification ensures that the full-scale project will receive government funding.

Germany: Lubricants specialist Fuchs has announced its collaboration with chemicals company BASF in performing a cradle-to-grave analysis of different mineral oil hydraulic fluids that takes into account all environmental and economic aspects of their lifecycle. The study concluded that high performance multigrade hydraulic oil (HVLP) has a lower environmental impact and lower overall cost than monograde hydraulic oil (HLP). Fuchs said, “This advantage is mainly based on an improved diesel fuel economy throughout the use phase - primarily due to improved volumetric fluid efficiency, lower friction and lower fluid mass circulation ratio.”

Fuchs and BASF both supply lubricants and chemical products to the cement industry.

Ireland: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has postponed a four-day hearing over Irish Cement’s alternative fuel (AF) licence application, scheduled for May 2020, to an as yet unspecified date due to the coronavirus. Under the terms of the proposed licence, Irish Cement will be able co-process a maximum of 90,000t/yr of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), including tyres, in the single dry line of its 1.0Mt/yr Mungret plant in County Limerick. The EPA said that emissions from operations under the terms of the licence ‘will meet all required environmental protection standards.’

Irish Cement received its preliminary licence to burn refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in September 2019. The move attracted local resistance, with 4500 people participating in a protest on 5 October 2019.

The EPA has said that it will give all relevant parties notice ‘well in advance’ of the date of the rescheduled hearing, which will take place after the government lifts the country’s coronavirus lockdown. On 14 April 2020 County Limerick had 234 coronavirus cases out of an Irish total of 10,647.

US: Titan America subsidiary Roanoke Cement has settled on a fine of US$3640 with the Virginia Department of Environment Quality (DEQ) for the breach of emissions regulations after a kiln gas outlet at its 1.5Mt/yr Troutville plant in Botetourt County, Virginia, recorded an average temperature of 121°C over a nine-hour period on 26 June 2019. Virginia DEQ enforcer Marvin Booth said there was ‘no documented harm to public health or the environment’ resulting from the violation.

US: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Energy Star certification to Japan-based Taiheiyo Cement subsidiary CalPortland’s 1.3Mt/yr integrated Rillito plant for the eighth consecutive year for its superior energy performance compared with other plants of comparable capacity in the country. CalPortland president and CEO Allen Hamblen said, “We continue to demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship and ENERGY STAR while also reducing our energy costs through the hard work of our employees and our corporate energy management culture.”

El Salvador: Holcim El Salvador has enlarged its partnership with the Environmental Fund of El Salvador (FonAES) to provide an environmental awareness education programme to 6000 pupils across six schools. The Noticias Financieras newspaper has reported that Holcim El Salvador will give a total of US$12,400 to the programme in 2020, up by 1.5% year-on-year from US$12,200 in 2019.

Russia: Italy-based Buzzi UniCem subsidiary SLK Cement has concluded an environmental agreement with the Sverdlovsk Oblast Ministry of Energy and Housing and Communal Services for the co-processing of solid municipal waste at its 1.0Mt/yr Sukholozhskcement plant. AMF Online News has reported that the transition, part of a nationwide government initiative called simply ‘Ecology,’ entails a modernisation of the kiln line, which the company says will be commissioned in 2023 or 2024. SLK Cement general director Andrei Immoreev said that alternative fuels use will not only increase production efficiency, but will also contribute to solving the environmental problems of the region.”

Germany: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Deutschland has publicised further details of its plan to make its low-CO₂ concrete, EcoPact Zero, carbon neutral. It has partnered with German bog rewetting specialist MoorFutures to offset the remaining CO₂ from the reduced-emissions production process of EcoPact Zero concrete. LafargeHolcim has purchased a climate protection certificate from the company, which in return is restoring enough peatland in Königsmoor, Schleswig-Holstein, to capture 1t of CO₂ for every Euro64 it receives. MoorFutures says “Peatlands are the most effective CO₂ stores on Earth.”