Displaying items by tag: Upgrade
US: CalPortland has commissioned a new cement grinding mill and distribution system at its Oro Grande cement plant in California. The US$58.5m project includes the construction of the finish ball mill and two new cement shipping lanes with two new distribution silos. It completes a partial plant modernisation program that was originally completed in 2008, prior to the acquisition of the facility by CalPortland. The Oro Grande cement plant was purchased from Martin Marietta Materials in mid-2015.
“The addition of this modern finish mill and efficient distribution system allows the plant to operate to the best in class standards as originally designed. It will help provide the industry with the additional supply required for necessary rehabilitation and rapidly developing infrastructure in California and Nevada,” said Steve Regis, Senior Vice President Corporate Services, CalPortland.
The project began in January 2018 and was constructed by general contractor ThyssenKrupp and sub-contractor TIC (The Industrial Company), in collaboration with CalPortland’s Engineering Services team.
The mill is a Polysius two compartment mill with production capability of around 180t/hr. It is equipped with motor, mill and separator technology as well as cement cooler design technology. The system also employs mechanical conveyance (bucket elevator) to convey finished product to the new silos, reducing its energy requirements. These additional systems are being added to the Oro Grande plant.
BUA signs up Wartsila to power new Sokoto line
26 March 2019Nigeria: BUA Group has signed a contract with Finland’s Wartsila Oy for construction of a 48MW power plant for Line 3 at its Sokoto Cement plant in Sokoto State. The announcement of the deal follows BUA’s January 2019 announcement that China’s CBMI would build the new line at the site.
Abdul Samad Rabiu , the executive chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of BUA Group, signed on behalf of the group while Wartsila’s Head of Africa Magnus Miemois signed for the power plant provider.
BUA is Nigeria’s second-largest cement producer by volume, with assets that include the 6Mt/yr Obu Cement I & II plants in Okpella, Edo State, CCNN’s 1.5Mt/yr Kalambaina plant and the 0.5Mt/yr Sokoto cement plant.
Flying Cement orders mill from FLSmidth
25 March 2019Pakistan: Flying Cement has ordered a 71-6 OK model cement mill from Denmark’s FLSmidth for its new 7700t/day production line at its Mangwal plant. The mill will be designed to grind Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at a capacity of 415t/hr. Commissioning is expected in 2020, and the mill will be supplied together with an FLSmidth ILC Preheater System, 2-Base Kiln, Cross-Bar Cooler, ROKSH 119 Separator, MAAG WPV-5000 Gear, Heat Exchanger and three filters. No price for the order has been disclosed.
Poland: Germany’s Bilfinger is installing refractory linings at Cemex Polska’s Rudniki cement plant. It is also carrying out assembly work at various parts of the unit. The industrial services company is installing the refractory linings for parts of the plant, which entails using around 2000t of refractory material within a five-month period. It is part of the installation of a new cement clinker production line at the site.
The contract comes under Bilfinger’s Engineering & Maintenance Continental Europe division. Companies for which Bilfinger has worked on past contracts in Poland include cement producers CRH and Dyckerhoff.
Mexico/US: Cemex has entered into a global agreement with Petuum to implement its Industrial AI Autopilot software products for autonomous cement plant operations at its plants around the world. The products for cement plant operations are being deployed at select Cemex USA and Mexico plants and will continue to be rolled out in 2019.
"We expect our yield improvements and energy savings to be up to 7%, from the connected AI-based autopilots, which is game-changing for our industry,” said Rodrigo Quintero, Operations Digital Technologies Manager at Cemex.
Petuum says that its Industrial AI Autopilot suite of products can deliver real-time forecasts for key process variables, prescriptions for critical control variables and supervised autosteer aligned with business objectives for all cement plant operations including clinker cooler, preheater, rotary kiln, pyro-process, ball mill and vertical mill processes to achieve lowered energy consumption, optimised fuel mix and increased throughput while maintaining stable operation and product quality. The products are integrated with plant control systems and OSIsoft PI data infrastructure for scalable and standardised deployments across multiple lines and plants globally.
The joint Cemex and Petuum teams achieved a cruise-control-like supervised ‘autosteer mode,’ where the AI Autopilot could run operations with full engage-disengage control available to the operator.
To find out more about Pettum visit: https://petuum.com/
FCT updates on burner projects in US and beyond
20 March 2019World: FCT Combustion has released details on new burner projects it is involved with. Selected projects include a new contract in the US to convert both kilns to natural gas firing at Ash Grove Cement’s Louisville plant in Nebraska. The order includes Gyro-Therm MKII Burners, Natural Valve Trains and NFPA 86 BMS for both kilns.
Nova Cimangola in Angola has contracted FCT to convert its 5000t/day kiln to fuel oil firing. The order includes a multi fuel main burner, calciner burners, oil heating units, oil pumping and filtering units and control panels.
FCT also provided details about a low NOx kiln conversion for an undisclosed client. Other selected cement sector projects include the commissioning of Turbu-Flex burner systems for clinker kilns at Finnsementti’s Parainen and Lappeenranta plants in Finland. These are scheduled for commissioning in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively. Baumit’s Wopfing plant in Austria is due for a natural has lance for kiln preheating to be delivered later in March 2019.
It also plans to deliver a Turbu-Flex burner system for a clinker kiln to an undisclosed client in China later in March 2019. It is based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study undertaken by FCT is to allow for the firing of natural gas and to modernise the plant. Commissioning is scheduled for March 2019.
Libyan Cement Company to spend Euro200m on upgrade
19 March 2019Libya: The Libyan Cement Company plans to spend Euro200m on an upgrade to its plant in Benghazi. The project will increase the unit’s production capacity to 3Mt/yr from 2Mt/yr at present. Planning is at an advanced stage, with tenders already issued for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a mixture of new and upgraded facilities. The Central Bank of Libya, other banks and other investors will supply finance for the project.
The cement producer reopened its Benghazi plant in late February 2019. It has over 1000 employees with more openings to follow.
Philippines: Republic Cement plans to install bag filters on its clinker conveyors, cement mills and packaging lines at its Batangas and Teresa plants in 2019 to replace electrostatic precipitators. It follows the installation of kiln bag filters, according to the Business Mirror newspaper. Following the upgrade it reduced its dust emissions by 75% to 20mg/Nm3, below the national limit of 150mg/Nm3. The cement producer is also considering building concrete roads at its unit to further reduce dust emissions.
Zambezi Portland Cement spends Euro23m on plant upgrade
14 March 2019Zambia: Zambezi Portland Cement has spent Euro23m on an upgrade to its plant. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gomeli Litana said that the upgrade was necessary due to the high demand for cement, according to the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation. He added that the expansion was likely to reduce the cost of cement.
Eurocement orders three mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer
12 March 2019Uzbekistan: Russia’s Eurocement has ordered three mills from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer for its Akhangarancement plant upgrade in Uzbekistan. The package includes an MVR 5000 R-4 for raw material grinding and two MVR 5000 C-4 for cement grinding. The MVR 5000 R-4, features a total drive power of 2500kW, will grind 500t/hr of cement raw material to a fineness of 12% R 90µm. The cement mills, each with an installed drive power of 4000kW, are designed to grind 200t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at 3200 Blaine. No value for the order has been disclosed.