Displaying items by tag: equipment

Mexico: Cementos Moctezuma has awarded a contract to France-based Fives FCB to supply an FCB Horomill 3800 grinding mill for its Morelos cement plant in Tepetzingo. The supplier says that the mill offers a lower power consumption than any competing product in the market. The latest mill will be the 15th Fives FCB mill at a Cementos Moctezuma cement plant in Mexico. Fives FCB says that its mills had accumulated 1.5m hours of operation across three different sites at the end of 2022.

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."

Asia/Middle East: South Korea-based Samsung Engineering and Canada-based Svante have signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU). Under the MoU, the companies will collaborate on the development and deployment of carbon capture technology in cement and other industries in Asia and the Middle East.

Svante President and CEO Claude Letourneau said “Samsung Engineering’s more than 50 years of experience in the energy and industrial sectors will be invaluable as we continue to rapidly expand our operations and filter production capabilities.”

Norway: Heidelberg Materials Sement Norge set in place a 220t absorber unit at its Brevik cement plant on late August 2023. The unit will form part of the upcoming 400,000t/yr carbon capture and storage (CCS) installation at the site. It expects to complete the installation of the absorber unit within two weeks of its placement. In September 2023, Heidelberg Materials Sement Norge will proceed to install the system’s 100m-high absorber stack.

Brevik CCS operational manager Tor Gautestad said “The absorber is in many ways the heart of the carbon capture process, because it is where the flue gases are separated.”

Japan: Tokuyama Corporation has installed ABB’s Expert Optimizer automated optimisation system in the kiln line of its Nanyo cement plant. The system controls the line’s calciner, kiln and cooler processes. The supplier says that the technology will reduce the Nanyo cement plant’s thermal energy consumption by 3%.

Tokuyama Corporation "We selected ABB's Expert Optimizer to equalise operations and improve operational efficiency. As expected, we have significantly reduced the number of the operator manual operations normally spent on manual tasks.” It added “We believe that this solution will also support our young operators in learning the know-how of our operations efficiently."

US: Block-Lite plans to install a system to cure concrete blocks using direct air capture (DAC)-sourced CO₂ at its Flagstaff, Arizona, concrete block plant. The upgrade will implement CarbonBuilt’s low-CO₂ concrete production technology and AirCapture’s modular DAC technology, across five or six capture units. Direct air capture will thus remove 500 – 600t/yr of CO₂ from the atmosphere, while process changes will reduce CO₂ emissions from the Flagstaff plant by over 2000t/yr. The project has attracted fundraising from the 4 Corners Carbon Coalition (4CCC), with a goal of US$50,000. The Arizon Daily Sun newspaper has reported that Block-Lite plans to supply its first shipment of low-CO₂ blocks to a 50-home development by Habitat for Humanity in Flagstaff.

India: Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer says that it has received orders for two MVR 3750 C-4 vertical roller mills from Dalmia Cement (Bharat). The producer plans to install one mill at its Ariyalur grinding plant in Tamil Nadu and the other at its Kadapa grinding plant in Andhra Pradesh. Gebr. Pfeiffer says that the mills will be employed in grinding clinker and pond ash. Each will produce 160t/hr of cement or fly ash cement. The supplier said that the mills' vertical design will help them to dry pond ash, as well as grinding and classifying it.

Greece/US: Titan Cement Group has made new venture capital investments in two US-based disruptive technology suppliers. The cement producer enlarged its investment in energy storage specialist Rondo Energy, which has developed the Heat Battery. The technology enables cement plants and other industrial operations to access a constant supply of electricity using captive renewable energy sources. It also invested in venture capital firm Zacua Ventures, which handles a portfolio of companies involved in developing optimisation, automation and Construction 4.0 technology, including products relevant to the cement industry.

Titan Group Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said “We are committed to embracing innovation and fresh perspectives. By engaging with advanced construction and green technology startups through direct and indirect investments, as well as collaborations, we intend to forge more partnerships in the sector.”

US: ThyssenKrupp Polysius, a subsidiary of Germany-based thyssenkrupp, has delivered a Polysius booster mill to Mountain Cement's Laramie grinding plant in Wyoming. The Eagle Materials subsidiary will take delivery of further ancillary equipment, including material handling, process gas management and machine protection systems, throughout mid-late 2023. The supplier said that the mill will help to increase the Laramie plant's flexibility. It will also provide site services and technical support for optimisation and maintenance for two years after commissioning, also slated for 2023.

ThyssenKrupp Polysius' project manager Matthew Burchfield said "This is a very important and interesting project for ThyssenKrupp Polysius. This is the first booster mill system sold in the US and one of the first booster mills worldwide. We are tasked with a very tight engineering and supply schedule. ThyssenKrupp Polysius is working closely with Mountain Cement and its engineering teams."

Russia: Soyuzcement, the national cement manufacturing union, has held a meeting discussing reverse engineering components for cement plants. The meeting of the committee for cement engineering took place at Cementum’s Schurovsky plant. The context of the meeting was that, before international sanctions were imposed upon Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, around 70% of the equipment and components for the cement sector was imported. At the event representatives of Cementum shared best practice of reverse engineering, including methodology and specific examples of manufacturing spare parts including scanning them to build three-dimensional models. The sector intends to further collaborate with local manufacturers to source the necessary parts.