Displaying items by tag: Lafarge Canada

Canada: The Greater Vancouver Water District (GVWD) has struck a deal with Lafarge Canada to sell drinking water treatment residuals to the Richmond cement plant for use in cement production. The contract is for a three-year agreement up to a total cost of just under US$1m, according to Postmedia News. The deal follows a 12-month industrial trial that started in mid-2016.

The residuals will be used as a substitute for shale in the production process. Around 10,000t/yr of residuals will be used to replace 2100t/yr of red shale and conglomerate that are currently supplied from a quarry at Sumas Mountain, Abbotsford. The use of residuals doesn’t affect the plant’s Air Quality Permit following stack tests. As part of the agreement Lafarge will need to build additional storage capacity at its plant.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has started a partnership with Dalhousie University researcher Mark Gibson to test tyre-derived fuel on an industrial scale at the Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. Working under a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant, this initiative will research the adoption of low carbon fuels in the cement industry. The research will continue the partnership between Lafarge Canada and Dalhousie's Faculty of Engineering.

"My students and I are very pleased to see this work enter the real world. Based on our research, we expect to see significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the Brookfield cement plant and thereby help Nova Scotia move one step closer to a low carbon economy," said Gibson. He added that the use of tires will also reduce NOx emissions. In 2015, Gibson and his team published a report entitled ‘Use of scrap tyres as an alternative fuel source at the Lafarge cement kiln, Brookfield, Nova Scotia.’

Due to different initiatives including previous work with Dalhousie's Faculty of Engineering, the Brookfield plant has substituted alternative fuels for conventional ones by using front-end burner injection in its kiln. The plant is expected to reach a substitution rate of up to 30% by the end of 2016. Following the test using tyres the cement producer expects to use 15% of its fuel requirements from 450,000 tyres per year, or just under half the amount of tyres generated in Nova Scotia. The project proposal will be explained in further detail at a Public Meeting planned for 20 October 2016 in Brookfield.

Canada: Lafarge Canada has announced the completion of modernisation and environmental upgrades at its Exshaw cement plant in Alberta. The plant has increased its cement production capacity to 2.2Mt/yr from 1.3Mt/yr. Environmental improvements have led to a 60% reduction in sulphur dioxide emissions, a 40% reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions and a reduction in fugitive dust and noise coming from the plant's equipment. The plant has also achieved zero water discharge from its operations.

"It is an incredible achievement to comple a project of this scale. Completing it safely takes focus and energy and I applaud the team for its dedication to this goal," said René Thibault, President and CEO, Lafarge, Western Canada. "By all accounts we consider the project to be a success, cementing our long term commitment to Exshaw, Alberta and western Canada."

The upgrade consisted of shutting down the plant’s kiln four in November 2015. It modernised kiln five to meet new emissions targets by retiring less efficient gravel-bed filter technology. It then built a new production line, kiln six, with a baghouse to collect particulates, as well as a vertical raw mill, a EcoDome storage facility, a pre-heater tower and a vertical cement mill.

Construction at the plant began in 2013, with more than 600 contracted employees on site at the peak of construction activity in addition to 160 permanent employees. The team achieved nearly three million hours without a lost time incident.

Canada: Bruno Roux has been appointed president and CEO for the Eastern Canada business unit of Lafarge Canada. His appointment is effective from 15 September 2014 and he succeeds Bob Cartmel. Cartmel will remain with the Lafarge Group, assisting with the LafargeHolcim merger.

In his new role, Roux will serve as Lafarge's senior leader for all market areas and product lines in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Roux will also join the Board of Directors of Lafarge Canada. Roux's responsibilities include all operational, sales, marketing and functional elements of the cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete product lines. He will lead these teams from the Eastern Canada head office in Toronto.

"I am very excited for the opportunity to lead an extremely talented team in Eastern Canada," said Roux. "I am looking forward to working with our customers, architects and other stakeholders in achieving our ambition of building better cities."

Roux most recently held the position of president and CEO of Lafarge's operations in Poland. A native of France, Roux is a graduate of l'École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers.