Displaying items by tag: Plant

US: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Lehigh Cement’s Mason City plant in Iowa US$198,000 for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The agency alleges that the company exceeded Clean Air Act emissions limits, failed to submit required reports to the state and failed to conduct required testing of equipment. The EPA also determined that air pollution from the facility may affect nearby overburdened communities. Under the terms of the settlement with the EPA, Lehigh Cement is required to conduct additional air emissions testing to demonstrate ongoing compliance with the Clean Air Act.

India: RHI Magnesita has opened its new Indian regional research and development centre. The centre is its fifth of its kind globally, and joins existing facilities in Austria, Brazil, China and the US.

The company is in the process of implementing a refractory production capacity expansion plan worth a total of US$53.8m. The plan consists of upgrades to its Bhiwadi plant in Rajasthan, Cuttack plant in Odisha and Vizag plant in Andhra Pradesh. It has already completed US$6.72-worth of the work with a 30% expansion at the Vizag plant. The company says that the remaining upgrades consist of both the establishment of new lines and the automation of existing ones.

RHI Magnesita India managing director and chief executive officer Parmod Sagar said “The centre will help us to better understand local market needs and to react faster to customer requirements. This is a world-class facility that will work closely with our global research and development network for local raw materials development, will provide solutions support for customer’s performance improvement projects and will support local manufacturing in the three India plants.”

Nepal: Udayapur Cement has commenced a US$42m upgrade and capacity expansion of its cement plant at Jaljale. The work includes replacing the shell of its 20m rotary kiln by the end of February 2022 and installing a reinforcement suspension preheater system, according to the Kathmandu Post newspaper. It will expand the plant’s capacity by 38% to 0.4Mt/yr from 0.29t/yr. The plant’s current equipment dates to 1988. Company spokesperson Laxman Pokharel said "Since the machines are old, we face frequent problems." He added that this has led to increased costs.

The Nepal government has agreed to loan Udayapur Cement US$34.4m, 80% of the project’s budget.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement plans to secure a captive power supply for its Saitama cement plant through the installation of a new gas-powered generator. The company says that electricity from the generator will replace purchased energy in the plant's operations. It is also in the process of constructing a new waste heat recovery (WHR) power unit at the facility. Taiheiyo Cement claims that both upgrades will result in a 62,000t/yr reduction in operations' CO₂ footprint. Construction is due to commence before 2022 in order for the producer to commission the new equipment in mid-to-late 2023.

Saitama cement plant's former coal and woodchip-powered generator exploded in April 2021. The producer said that work is on-going to prevent the incident's recurrence by investigating the causes of the accident and formulating preventative measures.

US: LafargeHolcimUS and its subsidiary Geocycle have successfully completed a barge shipment of 2000t of reclaimed bottom ash and fly ash from a pond at CenterPoint Energy’s AB Brown coal-fired power plant at Evansville in Indiana. The delivery is the first under a new 6Mt multi-year coal ash recycling contract with the energy provider.

LafargeHolcim US will use the coal ash to replace clay and sand in cement production at its Ste. Genevieve cement plant in Missouri. The producer says that this will help to reduce the plant's consumption of raw materials. LafargeHolcim US and Geocycle have invested US$80m in infrastructure to extract, process, transport, store and recycle ash from the power plant. Geocycle has managed the on-going joint recycling initiative between LafargeHolcim and CenterPoint Energy since 2009.

LafargeHolcim US's chief executive officer Toufic Tabbara said “This milestone is a tangible example of how industry participants together can develop creative and efficient solutions that contribute to the circular economy. Together, LafargeHolcim, Geocycle and CenterPoint Energy will avoid landfilling for power plants and reduce the consumption of non-renewable raw materials. This is a clear win-win for people and our planet.”

India: Sagar Cements says that its subsidiary Jajpur Cements is on track to commission its new 1.5Mt/yr Jajpur grinding plant in Odisha in December 2021. The Hindu BusinessLine newspaper has reported that the company invested US$41m in the plant’s construction. Sagar Cements acquired Jajpur Cements in May 2019 for US$16m. It had previously aimed to complete the new grinding plant’s construction by March 2021.

In October 2021, another Sagar Cements subsidiary, Satguru Cement, commissioned its new US$80.6m 1Mt/yr Indore integrated cement plant in Madhya Pradesh. The completion of both projects will bring Sagar Cements’ total installed capacity to 8.25Mt/yr. the company said that the new facilities will help in its rationalisation of freight expenses and help it to diversify its sales outside of existing markets.

Libya: The National Mining Corporation and Abraj Al-Ghad Company have contracted AstroPlan, FLSmidth and Grenzebach for the construction of a five-factory building materials production complex at Bani Walid. The Libya Herald newspaper has reported that the 16,300ha complex will include a new cement plant. The Libyan Ministry of Industry and Materials said that a total of 4000 new jobs will be available at the complex.

Philippines: Eagle Cement recorded consolidated sales of US$324m in the first nine months of 2021, up by 63% year-on-year. The company said that its cement volumes recorded double-digit growth during the period. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were US$134m, up by 59% from US$83.9m. Its net profit meanwhile rose by 89% to US$102m from US$53.9m.

The company also announced that it has completed its expansion of its 7.1Mt/yr Bulacan cement plant in Luzon. The newly commissioned plant now boasts a fifth grinding mill, a third packing facility and a fifth cement silo, along with new supporting facilities.

Spain: Votorantim Cimentos has started a Euro2m project to install a new clinker cooler at its Toral de los Vados plant. The work is expected to last until early December 2021 at the subsidiary run by Cementos Cosmos. The project will improve the energy efficiency of the plant. In August 2021 construction started on a 6.2MW solar plant to supply electricity to the site.

Japan: Taiheiyo Cement has revealed that a weakness in an evaporator tube in a fluidised bed heat exchanger in a captive power plant was the cause of an explosion that took place at its Hidaka cement plant in April 2021. It said that inspections had been carried out annually but that it was difficult to detect defects visually. The company has apologised for the incident. It says it will make changes including a review of inspection standards, including more personnel in the process, improved information sharing and starting regular training on the issue. These changes will be implemented across all of the company’s plants.

The 50,000kW circulating fluidised bed (CFB) boiler was supplied by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and commissioned in 1996. It ran on coal, wood chips and refuse-derived fuel. No blame for the explosion has been attributed to the manufacturer.

The explosion took place in the evening of 27 April 2021. No major injuries were sustained. However, 40 vehicles parked outside a Pachinko gambling parlour near the plant were damaged. Scattered debris was noted nearby and ash was reported up to 5km from the cement plant.