Displaying items by tag: GCW129

Canada: Lafarge Canada Inc. have temporarily laid off 31 of its 50 unionised workers for December 2013 at its Brookfield cement plant as a seasonal cost-cutting measure.

"These workers will be back on the job early in the new year," said plant manager Scarth MacDonnell, who added that the temporary layoff is consistent with the seasonal nature of the business. "It is an unfortunate reality given the weather-related impact of the construction industry."

The future of the plant is solid as it continues to service Lafarge customers throughout Canada and the US. "Lafarge is firmly committed to its Brookfield plant for the long term and we will make the necessary investments to secure our future in Nova Scotia," said MacDonnell.

The Brookfield Lafarge plant received US$631,000 from the ecoNova Scotia Fund for Clean Air and Climate Change in 2010 to gear up for production of a new variety of low-carbon cement. The environmentally friendly cement is set to be in production at the plant by 2015.

Australia: Wyanga Holdings, Australian quarry specialists, has settled out of court after it was taken before the Land and Environment Court for exceeding its extraction limits.

Wyanga Holdings, the New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services Department (RMA) and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) were set to appear before Justice Sheahan at the NSW Land and Environment Court on 27 November 2013. However, Wyanga Holdings withdrew its appeal on the day over its Corindi Quarry licence issues and agreed to pay costs to the EPA and RMS in the appeal.

In August 2013 the EPA suspended Wyanga Holdings' licence for the quarry for seriously breaching the extraction limits on its license. Wyanga had extracted more than 368,000t of aggregate despite the extraction limit of 50,000t/yr.

Wyanga Holdings will now have to lodge a development application with Coffs Harbour City Council for consent to operate the quarry in excess of its original licence. The council rejected an earlier application.

Qatar: FLSmidth has signed a Letter of Intent with the Qatar National Cement Company (QNCC) for the supply of a cement plant in Qatar. FLSmidth has confirmed that if and when the contract is finalised and becomes binding, the market shall be immediately informed. To be considered binding the contracts, down payments and guarantees must be signed and exchanged.

Germany/India: The exclusive Cooperation Agreement will enable MVW Lechtenberg & Partner (Germany) and Tridiagonal Solutions (India) to combine activities in the worldwide cement and lime industry to utilise Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models to develop, design and troubleshoot combustion processes.

CFD is the computer-aided solution technique to describe and simulate flow-related physical phenomena such as fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion. CFD has proven itself as a powerful technique to solve flow-related problems across a range of industries. Various cement, lime and power plant applications that can be analysed using CFD include kilns and boilers, flue gas cleaning systems, bag filters, bypass systems, NO_x reduction systems, heat recovery steam generators and related equipment.

"With recent advances in the understanding of combustion, multi-phase, turbulent reacting flows and computational resources, it is now possible to develop and use computational models to simulate the performance of cement and lime plant equipment with our huge database on alternative fuels and raw materials and their influence on processes. With the outstanding experience of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling professionals from Tridiagonal Solutions we can now provide a reliable and cost effective process modeling solution to the industry," said Dirk Lechtenberg, managing director and founder of MVW Lechtenberg & Partner.

Besides CFD Modeling, the cooperation also offers a powerful framework for state-of-the-art technology services that include process engineering and consulting (including manufacturing of pilot plants), experimental fluid flow modeling, discrete element modeling (DEM), granular dynamics consulting (EDEM - CFD coupled simulations) and simulation software development.

"Tridiagonal has been delivering process performance enhancement and product development solutions to leading companies from chemicals and process, oil and gas, power generation, pharmaceuticals, and the automotive industry. We are excited to partner with MVW and bring our expertise to the cement and lime industry. The synergy between Tridiagonal and MVW's expertise will lead to new insights and innovative solutions in the cement and lime industry worldwide" said Sandeepak Natu, Head-India Europe Business Unit of Tridiagonal Solutions.