Displaying items by tag: dryer

Ghana: CIMPOR has appointed Germany-based ThyssenKrupp Polysius to build a 1280t/day flash activator for clay. The activator will supply calcined clay for use in the production of cement with a clinker factor as low as 50%. This can reduce the cement’s CO₂ emissions by 40% compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The supplier’s contract covers engineering, supply of core equipment and supervision of the project. The equipment includes parts for clay handling, a hammer mill, a flash dryer and preheating and cooling equipment, as well as storage silos. The activator will be natural gas-fired.

Polysius Activated Clay product owner Leo Fit said "Our technology is not only more environmentally friendly, but also creates cost benefits for our customers like CIMPOR. In many regions, limestone is scarce and clinker has to be imported at high cost. At the same time, suitable clay sources are available. The increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is leading cement manufacturers to rethink. They need an alternative that is cost-efficient and at the same time provides high-quality cement. This is exactly what Polysius activated clay offers."

UK: Switzerland-based Holcim has invested in Coomtech, a developer of low-emission kinetic drying technology for raw materials. The group says that Coomtech's technology emits up to 75% less CO₂ than traditional drying methods and enables increased use of recycled materials in cement and concrete. Holcim subsidiary Aggregate Industries previously collaborated with Coomtech on fly ash drying at a UK power plant.

Edelio Bermejo, head of global research and development said "At Holcim, we are continuously working to implement greener operations for a net-zero future, and to increase the use of recycled materials in our products to drive circular construction. Coomtech's low-emission drying technology helps us meet both these goals. I look forward to working with them as a key partner in our journey to decarbonise buildings."

Philippines: Cemex subsidiary Solid Cement is installing a new US$356m, 1.5Mt/yr line at its Antipolo cement plant. When operational in April 2024, the line will increase the plant’s capacity by 79% to 3.4Mt/yr. Over the first four months of the project since March 2022, Solid Cement invested US$197m in silos and mechanical installation. The new 1.5Mt/yr line will use Low Temperature Clinker technology to reduce its CO₂ emissions, and will also recycle waste hot gases for raw materials drying.

Solid Cement is building the plant using 6000t of its own Vertua reduced-CO2 cement, which it says will further reduce its net carbon footprint by 564t.

Philippines president and CEO Luis Franco said “We will maintain our active role in supporting the development of this nation, as we have done in the past 25 years.”

UK: Aggregate Industries and Coomtech have partnered to develop low-energy kinetic drying technology for pulverised fuel ash (PFA) from power plant. The partnership will see Aggregate Industries use Coomtech’s kinetic dryers in its PFA processing, as part of its effort towards increasing the volume of waste materials incorporated in its products to 3Mt/yr from 1.5Mt/yr by 2025. The project has attracted funding from the UK government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Chief commercial officer Chris Every said “We’re delighted to have the support of Aggregate Industries in this grant project. Coomtech is especially pleased to have the business’ ongoing technical and commercial input to the project operation and analysis of performance. In addition, the opportunity to work together with a brand that is leading the way in creating new materials that will prove fundamental to the future of the construction sector and meet net zero objectives.” Every continued “The added benefit of our new drying technology is its flexibility - providing the potential to dry a wide range of materials being considered to aid the greening of the cement industry, including limestone, ground blast furnace slag (GBFS), natural pozzolans and other crushed and milled minerals that can offer an activated character to combine in cement and concrete mixes.”

World: The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has named its first six startups to receive backing under the inaugural Innovandi Open Challenge. The startups have partnered with GCCA members to help increase cement’s sustainability towards achieving net zero CO₂ concrete production by 2050. This will lead to the formation of six consortia to further test, develop and deploy their new technologies.

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) startups CarbonOrO, MOF Technologies and Saipem, all based in Europe, are among the participants. GCCA members are currently involved in dozens of pilot projects and aim to have 10 industrial-scale carbon capture plants installed by 2030. Other startups Carbon Upcycling Technologies and Fortera, from Canada and the US respectively, use captured CO₂ to produce low-carbon cement and cementitious materials, while UK-based Coomtech has developed a low-cost drying technology using turbulent air.

GCCA CEO Thomas Guillot said “It’s a proud moment to see the industry coming together to support such innovative start-ups on their journey. Our member companies were greatly impressed by their ambition to be a key part of the climate solution. The programme is another big step forward towards unlocking innovation to help us achieve our net zero goal.” He continued “As the need for resilient and sustainable communities to support a growing global population becomes more pressing , cement and concrete will be essential to providing the infrastructure and buildings that society needs. Achieving net zero concrete relies on a number of different groups playing their part, and as an industry we’re looking outwards as well as inwards, to see how start-ups like these can support our goals.”

Philippines: Holcim Philippines plans to invest US$4.18m in upgrades to its cement plants at La Union, Bacnotan, and Lugait, Misamis Oriental to improve business and sustainability performance.

The subsidiary of Switzerland-based Holcim held a ceremonial signing ceremony on 7 July 2021 to award the contract to Sinoma CBMIPH Construction to install a drying facility at the La Union plant. The project is intended to reduce the fuel consumption of the unit by reusing hot gases from operations to dry materials. The integrated plant was recently awarded an ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety Management System and recertified for ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System) and ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management System) by certification body TÜV Rheinland. Holcim Philippines has also contracted Sinoma CBMIPH to install a drying facility at its Lugait plant that will reduce moisture of raw materials to improve grinding operations. The La Union and Lugait projects are scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2022 and by the end of October 2021 respectively.

In January 2021, Holcim Philippines also started projects worth US$2.42m to raise the efficiency of converting qualified waste materials to alternative fuels of its cement plant in Bulacan, Norzagaray. These will enable its Geocycle subsidiary to support the Bulacan plant to increase its thermal substitution rate by using more post-consumer and municipal solid wastes as alternative fuels.

Austria: Loesche subsidiary A TEC has won a contract for the supply and installation of a Flash Dryer for alternative fuels (AFs) in the kiln line of Lafarge Zementwerke's 1.1Mt/yr Mannersdorf cement plant in Lower Austria. The supplier said that it will complete the project in early 2021.

The company said, “Reaching high thermal substitution rates (TSR) requires firing of alternative fuels at the kiln burner. To reach a stable sintering zone for the required clinker quality a high fuel quality (high LCV, small particle size) is needed, otherwise the clinker quality may suffer or the TSR can be limited. With the A TEC Flash Dryer various waste heat sources can be used (clinker cooler flue gas, bypass gas, preheater gas, etc.). The material is dosed to the hot gas flow in the flash dryer and transported with this gas flow, while the moisture is evaporated, to a cyclone and a subsequent filter where the fuel is separated from the gas flow and on-line fed to a kiln burner or a satellite burner. In addition to the drying the lifting effect of the gas can separate 3D impurities which contributes in a further increase of the fuel quality.”

India: Shree Cement has ordered a TRT 5000/8.0 Triplex dryer from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. The dryer will be used to dry flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum from a captive coal-power plant for use in cement plants. In the planned dryer plant the moisture of the FGD gypsum will be reduced to a residual moisture of <2%. Artificial gypsum from the dryer will be used at other cement grinding plants in the country. The 50t/hr dryer will be installed at the end of 2018 and is expected to start commercial operation in mid-2019.

Gebr. Pfeiffer is also planning to partially calcine the gypsum in future installations of the dryer. The TRT Triplex dryer uses the uniflow principle, where both material and hot gasses flow in the same direction and pass through the dryer tubes from the centre outwards. Testing at the Gebr. Pfeiffer test station have yielded ‘positive’ results and further installations in other plants are being considered.

Ecuador: FCT Combustion has won an order to supply a clay dryer to Cemento Chimborazo. The order includes a complete raw material drying system. It consists of a 41.2t/hr Triplex drier and a fluidised bed combustion system for petcoke and alternative fuel firing. No value or commissioning date has been disclosed.

Honduras: France’s Fives has won a contract to supply a FCB Flash dryer for Cementos del Norte’s Bijao plant. The dryer will be installed on an existing ball mill that was supplied and installed by Fives FCB in 2001 for a production capacity of 90t/hr of pozzolanic cement. Since then the pozzolana content and moisture rate have increased. Once operational the grinding plant drying capacity will rise.