Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim

Argentina: Geocycle has signed a three-year deal with the Province of Mendoza to use tyres at LafargeHolcim’s Capdeville cement plant. Geocycle has spent Euro1.15m on preparing a unit to process the tyres, according to the Los Andes newspaper. The waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has also worked with the local government on setting up collection points for residents to leave old tyres. Geocycle conducted a similar project in Jujuy province in 2018 and it plans to run a similar one in Cordoba province.

Egypt: Geocycle Egypt has opened a plant to process alternative fuels in Ain Sokhna. The unit had an investment of around US$12m, according to the Egypt Independent newspaper. The waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim will process agricultural and industrial waste into alternative fuels. It plans to supply 0.4Mt/yr to Lafarge Cemet Egypt’s Ain Sokhna plant.

Philippines: Geocycle Philippines has co-processed 20,000t of contaminated soil at Holcim Philippines’ Bulacan cement plant in 2018. The soil was taken from former petroleum depots in the Pandacan district that have been opened up for commercial and residential developments. In November 2014 the Philippine Supreme Court ordered the remediation of soil covering an area of 33 hectares, which had been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Three companies have worked on the remediation project. It is led by US consulting firm AECOM, which performs the analysis of the waste and manages compliance and permits. Charifer Builders, a local partner, is in charge of civil works and site management. Geocycle Philippines transports the waste from the site to the Bulacan plant for final treatment through pre- and co-processing. The teams reviewed a number of soil remediation solutions but Geocycle won the bid for multiple reasons, not only cost.

“Geocycle's solution was considered the best option for this project as the treatment process completely destroys the contaminants, and leaves no residual liabilities at the project site,” said Alfred A Lalu, Technical Director, Environment of AECOM Philippines Consultants.

Geocycle Philippines is expected to co-process nearly 20,000t of contaminated soil in the first quarter of 2019.

US: LafargeHolcim’s Ravena cement plant in New York is considering burning tyres as an alternative fuel. Environmental Director Kevin G Bretz told Coeymans town officials that the cement producer has ‘developed relationships’ and held ‘preliminary discussions’ with potential tyre suppliers, according to the Times Union newspaper. The cement producer was hoping to use an approval by the state Department of Environmental Conservation granted in 2006 that gave permission for it to burn up to 4.8 million tyres annually at the plant. However, this Beneficial Use Determination (BUD) expired in mid-2018.

Germany: Holcim Süddeutschland plans to co-process glass waste at the Dotternhausen cement plant. It has submitted an application to the local government to store 625t of glass waste at the site, according to the Zollern-Alb-Kurier newspaper. The glass waste will be used as a substitute for clay in the production process and it is proposed to be used at a rate no greater than 0.7t/hr. The plant will receive glass waste with a thickness no more than 3mm that cannot be recycled for glass production. The waste will be sourced from a processing plant in Bad Wurzach.

India: The city corporation of Tirupur has signed a letter of intent to supply 30t/day of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to ACC’s cement plant at Madukarai near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. The city authorities are struggling to separate waste streams generated by its residents, according to the Times of India. The authorities are trying to improve local awareness to segregate waste at source to aid reuse, recycling and disposal.

Argentina: Geocycle Argentina has signed a framework agreement with the Ministry of Environment to co-process tyres at Holcim Argentina’s Capdeville cement plant in Las Heras. The arrangement is also intended to minimise population’s levels of the Aedes aegypti or yellow fever mosquito, according to MDZ Online. Improper disposal of tyres and the subsequent accumulation of water can lead to higher breeding levels of the mosquito. The insect is a vector in the transmission of the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses.

US: The city of Fort Myers in Florida is planning to send 30,000t of ‘toxic’ sludge for disposal at LafargeHolcim’s Theodore cement plant in Alabama. The waste will be transported by truck to LafargeHolcim quarry north of Crystal River for pre-treatment and then onto the Theodore plant, according to the Citrus Country Chronicle newspaper. The company hopes to start the removal process in October 2018 and complete it by the end of the year. Permit application for the removal process are still on-going. The ‘toxic’ sludge came from the city’s water plant. It was dumped in fields in Fort Myers from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Czech Republic: Lafarge Czech Republic plans to spend nearly Euro4m on upgrades for its Ciskovice plant. Half of this investment has been spent on rebuilding an electrostatic precipitator for the main chimney for the plant. An additional Euro1.5m will be spent on improvements to the warehouse, handling and dosing of alternative fuels for the kiln. Upgrades to improve the unit’s noise and fire protection are also scheduled.

Mexico: Holcim Mexico has spent US$5.5m on upgrades to allow co-processing alternative fuels at its Ramos Arizpe plant near Saltillo. The new alterntive fuels line will start operation by May 2018, according to the Vanguard newspaper. Rodolfo Montero Chacón, the general director of the subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, said that the 2.2Mt/yr plant has two kilns but it only uses one due to local demand. The plant currently operates a proudction capcity utilistation rate of 55%.