9th Global CemFuels Conference 2015
16 - 17 February 2015
The 9th Global CemFuels Conference on alternative fuels (AF) for the cement industry has successfully taken place in Dubai on 16 - 17 February 2015, with 140 delegates from 31 countries, including 24 presentations, and with 26 exhibitors on AF-related equipment and services. The 10th Global CemFuels Conference, Exhibition and Awards will take place in Prague in February 2016.
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The 9th Global CemFuels Conference started with a welcome party in the exhibition area, showcasing 26 companies offering a wide range of alternative fuels equipment and services: Exhibitors reported many useful sales leads over the course of the event.
The next day, Jan Theulen of HeidelbergCement started the conference by pointing out that even in his group, which has made strenuous efforts to increase AF usage rates, many plants are still hardly using AF at all. Jan suggested that the first 5% of AF use is the hardest: AFR (alternative fuels and raw materials) are blamed for any process disturbance. Jan admitted that, if not processed correctly, even a feed including 1% of contaminated soil could lead to VOC emission limit problems. If the kiln is run at lower than 1% O2 at the kiln inlet it is hard to burn to burn AF without generating CO peaks. However, other factors can have much greater effects - sulphur input from tyres, for example, is dwarfed by the potential variability of sulphur input from raw materials such as limestone. The first permit that is granted for AF use at a plant will be scrutinised in detail and officials can typically take the view that even if AF is used elsewhere, that the same rules 'do not apply here,' or that the AF is different. Jan stated that ongoing training for employees is crucial, with plant personnel, mangers and executives all receiving training, partly through a popular dedicated section on AF on the company's intranet. HeidelbergCement has ambitious targets to increase AF use to 30% thermal substitution rate (TSR) company-wide by 2020. The company's new cement plant in Tula in Russia started to use AF only one year after the plant's start-up, using locally-available saw dust. In another example, Jan spoke about a plant in Jakarta which uses 1.2Mt of coal each year in its eight kiln lines, even while Jakarta generates 10,000t of municipal solid waste (MSW) each day, all of which currently goes to landfill. A simple pilot plant was built that tripled the calorific density of the waste by covering it and by blowing air through it to dry it, making it useable for cement fuel. At the Ammasandra plant near Bangalore, very simple devices were constructed by plant personnel in order to use locally-available AF including glass fibres from windmill blades. At a project in Togo, the company diverted part of the waste that was due for landfilling towards reuse at its cement plant. Waste sampling showed that proper preparation could add sufficient value to make its use economic. He concluded that each plant must make its own path to success.
Dr Bassem Nassouhy of Lafarge's EcoCem company suggested that with the world's population heading towards 9 billion by 2050, we should do more with less and that we should reuse everything. A cement plant can be at the heart -or at least be a vital link- in a circular industrial economy, reusing industrial byproducts from other industries. Use of AF has a positive environmental impact, but also, of course, has a positive business impact as well. Production of a tonne of cement requires the use of 1.6 tonnes of raw materials, and 0.1t of oil equivalent (TOE). Bassem pointed out the many advantages that the cement kiln has over the destruction of waste in an incinerator, since the kiln has a long residence time, much higher temperature and incorporation of any slag or ash into the clinker, as well as self-cleaning of the exhaust gases in the preheater. Dr Nassouhy said that before a load of AF can be delivered to the cement plant, it must first be analysed, then a quotation for acceptance created, before the delivery takes place: pretreatment then takes place before use at the cement plant. He then enumerated Lafarge's 31 companies, 12 of which are wholly-opened, that deal with waste for AF. The company has a target of 50% TSR by 2020, but is at a TSR rate of around 20% in 2015. In the Czech Republic, the company's highest AF user, the Lafarge plant has a TSR of around 80%, followed by Germany, Austria and Poland. Lafarge EcoCem in the UAE is engaged in processing a wide variety of waste streams created within the Emirates and further afield, including hydrocarbon sludges, drill cuttings, spent pot liners and other wastes.
Dirk Lechtenberg of MVW Lechtenberg spoke about the effects of the reduction in the oil price and also on the possible effects on the cement industry of the Lafarge-Holcim merger. The merger aims to create a company with a total capacity of around 230Mt of cement production capacity, with many obligatory divestments in various markets, but mainly in Europe. Due to these divestments, the alternative fuel TSR rate will be reduced company wide after the merger, from around 17% to below 10%. It is possible that CRH, which will take over many of the divested (high TSR) European plants, will become the company with the highest TSR, at over 30%, higher even than the current leader, Cemex. To state the obvious, oil production at the moment is higher than demand so that the price has dropped. At the same time, the coal price has dropped dramatically. The cost of collection and processing of AF is around Euro35/t for 4000kCal/kg fuel. Dirk pointed out that if the coal price drops to around US$50/t then the use of AF will not make much economic sense - unless you receive a gate fee for processing the waste. Dirk forecast tough times for the AF industry in the next few years - especially in MENA - due to the low price of oil and coal.
Ed Verhamme of Alternative Resource Partners next spoke about pricing factors for AF. He said that cement plant managers will ask themselves a simple question: "Is it cheaper than coal?" If the potential alternative fuel is cheaper than coal, then it is likely to be considered - and if not cheaper than coal, then it will probably not be considered. However, AF has other costs associated with its use, including storage, feeding, processing, quality control, loss of production, continuous emissions monitoring and other issues. Ed pointed out that whatever your prospective AF, you will find somebody, somewhere trying to eliminate that waste from the market within the next five to ten years, so that you have to have flexibility in AF fuel supply. Costs involved in AF supply are collection, transportation, pre-processing, documentation, receiving, handling, treatment, co-processing, monitoring and reporting. The price that can be levied or achieved is partly dependent on the costs involved in alternative 'disposal' of the material. Landfill costs in Europe, for example, never decrease, whereas in the US there is seldom a tax for placing material in a landfill. Ed pointed out that cement kilns are often versed against incineration and EfW ('energy from waste') facilities and these facilities often do not care too much about the quality and calorific value of the material. Incinerators in continental Europe have now achieved 'R1' status, to allow the materials that they use to count as being recycled. At the moment, the UK is exporting around 1.5Mt of refuse-derived-fuel (RDF) to continental Europe, since the UK has not built sufficient EfW facilities and there is currently a major surplus of EfW facilities in the continent - so that material is traveling down the route of most value.
Andy Hill of Sita UK next gave a manufacturer's perspective on RDF. Sita handles around 8.7Mt of post consumer material each year and is part of major international group Suez Environmental. Andy spoke of the evolution of societies towards being circular economies, with recycled ('former waste') resources becoming input materials for other industries. New jobs are generated as recycling is increased. Andy said that in the last seven years around 20Mt of waste has been diverted from ending up in landfills in the UK. However, there are significant costs involved in upgrading materials so that they can be used as fuels in the cement industry: basic RDF has a calorific value (CV) up to 15MJ/kg, with SRF (secondary recycled fuel) having values above this and typically having lower particle size, lower moisture and higher quality parameters. Andy suggested that the SRF export/import market in Northern Europe is a long-term market, with players now seeking long-term contracts. Sita now has permits to export 4.6Mt of RDF from the UK each year. He said that some brokers add real value, if they innovate in logistics, in technology and if they can respond fast to any market changes. However, the company has built supply chains to bring its manufactured fuels directly to the customer, for example in lime, in power, in iron and steel and in cement. Andy pointed out that the alternative fuel industry in the UK has been attractive for illegal operators, and in response to this there will be stricter rules to smoke out the crooks: financial bonds will be put in place before permits are issued and there will be 'fit and proper person' tests. He forecast that SRF will soon be exported to non-EU countries when the conditions are right.
Brian McGrath of OLM consultancy next asked the question 'why do some plants have high TSR, and many many other plants have low or zero rates'? He pointed out that a plant's license to operate is never actually given by the local community, but can certainly be withdrawn. Vociferous campaigns against AF use in cement plants have meant that projects have had to be abandoned in the past. "Dealing with the community is a case of managing perceptions," he said. One approach to communication is to start early: an invitation to an open day, followed by a public meeting (listening, not telling), then an invitation to form a community liaison committee and then a willingness to engage with the process may all be sensible and effective steps. Brian pointed out that the regulators are essentially interested in what goes up the kiln stack. Dioxins, furans, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), acid gases such as sodium, fluoride, chloride and sulphur, nitrous oxides, heavy metals and dust do not necessarily increase with AF use, and some can be reduced significantly. There are many technical risks in using AF, but all of them can be managed. A level of 200mg/kg of total chlorine in the fuel may be extended to 300mg/kg if SO3 levels are low, in order to avoid heavy and problematic coating and blockages. Brian finished by saying that higher volumes of gas will also be needed when using AF, compared to coal, for example.
David Hopper of CellMark gave an overview of AF in Asia and looked at future likely trends. "In the developing world, much of the recycling is done by the informal sector, that is to say scavengers. In these countries organics are not separated and will be contained in the residual MSW." A mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant can be used to reduce organics and moisture content. Today some plants are routinely using 60% AF in Europe and are targeting 80%. Many now have to pay for their high quality AF, but in some place they are still paid. In the future, David suggested, cement producers will only be paid to burn hazardous fuels. David pointed out that in developed Asian nations, the MSW has a moisture content of perhaps 35 - 45%, with high calorific value, but in developing Asia it will have much higher moisture content, particularly in the Monsoon, and lower calorific values. In Korea, Lafarge and Hyundai both use around 20% AF but want to increase these levels towards 50%. In the developing Asian nation, AF use is low, with a predominance of biomass and a strong willingness to use tyres. Coal cost has dropped by 40% in the last two years, and this has depressed the prospects for AF use in the future. David suggested that the cost of biomass will increase in the future as other uses outbid the cement industry. Commercial and industrial wastes may also reduce in supply, but MSW is likely to remain as a major source of AF for the cement industry. David concluded that Asia has one of the highest levels of potential for an increase in AF use in the world and he suggested that MBT plants will have a major part to play to increase the quality of AF derived from MSW.
Philippe Fonta of the Cement Sustainability Initiative spoke about the possibility of safe, resource-efficient waste management solutions for the cement industry. He pointed out that coprocessing of AF in a cement kiln is inherently more 'green' than just incineration or just using the material for energy, since the potential ash or slag is incorporated into the clinker and this material also avoids the use of virgin raw materials. He pointed out the differences between fossil fuels, fossil wastes (non-fossil fuel, non-biomass) and biomass.
Pietro Cella started the next session, on AF preparation, by speaking on how to increase TSR to 60%. In Europe the installed MBT capacity is around 9Mt, with an additional 1Mt of capacity under construction, and with the highest concentration of MBT plants in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. Eastern European countries such as Poland, Slovenia, Romania and the Czech Republic are rapidly building waste processing facilities. The quantity of MSW available globally is forecast to increase from 1.3bnt year in 2012 to 2.2bnt in 2025, that is to say 6Mt per day. However, RDF from MSW typically struggles to reduce chlorine levels to lower than 0.3% (from PVC and other sources). Falcon near-infrared recognition equipment can be used to effectively identify high-Cl plastics and to remove them from the waste stream, reducing overall Cl levels. Pietro suggested that cement companies should be prepared to become more involved in the production of their fuels in order to start to increase their TSR.
Patryk Max of Vecoplan spoke on modular solutions for RDF for the cement industry. Patryk gave details of a low-cost modular project for feeding of tyre chips at a cement plant in Egypt.
Jori Kaaresmaa of BMH Technology spoke about the crucial topic of AF preparation. As he said, "everything that will be or has been produced in all the factories in all the world will one day be waste." Jori pointed out that the higher the TSR, the higher is the importance of fuel quality and of dosing accuracy. He suggested that even single-waste streams can be badly contaminated. His company's Tyrannosaurus SRF production process starts with a thorough pre-shredding, which allows for effective separation of different waste types, collection of metals and reduction of chlorine content. The process is effected using the family of Tyrannosaurus machines, each one of which can be sized to the local requirements. The main shredder in the process has a load-controlled pusher, zero gap technology and a guarantee against massive object impact damage.
Global CemFuels awards gala dinner
At the end of the first day of the conference, delegates took to the balmy waters of Dubai Creek in a glass-walled dining yacht for the Global CemFuels Awards gala dinner. AF-using company of the year was Cemex, for the fourth year in a row, while the AF-producer of the year was named as N&P of the Netherlands. AF technology of the year was announced as the Putzmeister sludge pump: the AF project of the year was the Slite Cement plant's ongoing efforts to import and burn AF at over 60% TSR. The Global CemFuels personality of the year was named as Ted T Reese, of Cadence Environmental Energy, a popular choice. AF discussions continued long into the night.
Second day
On the second day of the conference, Dr Hisham Omar Sherif of ECARU/ENTAG gave some details about alternative solid fuels projects in Egypt. In fact, Egypt generates 20Mt/ year of MSW, from which can be produced 4Mt of RDF, as well as 25 -30Mt/year of biomass, which could be used to generate 3Mt of biomass-derived fuel (BDF). Biomass is derived from woody material, including tree trimming and cotton stalks, and fibrous materials including rice straw, corn stalks and sugar cane trash. Hisham showed how the cost of energy per MJ from RDF is around half the cost of energy from fuel oil or natural gas, while compared to coal RDF is not quite so advantageous but still gives a price advantage of around 30 - 40%. However there are hindrances to using RDF in Egypt: there is a complex and incomplete legal framework; there is an inconsistent institutional structure with unclear roles and insufficient capacities; there is an under-provided financial structure, malformed services, inadequate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; and centralised planning that lacks adequate social inclusion such as for the Zabaleen litter pickers of Cairo.
Roman Eggert of Putzmeister Solid Pumps spoke about the equipment that is required to be able to handle sludges in the cement industry. Roman made the point that there are many different types of sludge, with a spectrum of flow properties, and the machinery required will vary depending on sludge characteristics. Screw conveyors, chain conveyors and belt conveyors can be used for sludge transport, but they have some limitations and disadvantages. On the other hand, pumping systems have some advantages; pipe routing is simpler and more flexible; horizontal and vertical routing is possible; a large variety of different sludge types can be pumped from liquid to pasty, but special high-pressure pumping equipment is required, either PC-pump, a lobe pump or a piston pump (such as those provided by Putzmeister). Each pump type has its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Roman 'customized' a quote from the classic movie Forrest Gump; "Sludge is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get."
Neville Roberts of N&P spoke about the company's operations and its offering for the alternative fuels industries. SRF of more than 20MJ/kg can be used anywhere in the plant but is best suited for firing into the front end of the kiln, whereas lower CV SRF is primarily fired into the calciner. With the highest grade of SRF, factories are capable of burning at up to 100% TSR, such as the Cemex Beckum plant and the South Ferriby factory in the UK (a plant which reportedly increased its cement production by 20% while burning 100% AF). N&P operates primarily in Germany, Latvia, UK, Belgium, France, Portugal and Holland and will shortly start work in Spain and Poland, and aims to provide services to consumers in the Middle East, the Balkans and North Africa, focusing on cement, lime and power generation industries. At the moment the company produces over 2Mt of AF, growing rapidly. Neville mentioned a pelletised AF called SubCoal, which can be co-ground with coal or petcoke. SubCoal has a CV of >20MJ/kg, ash content of less than 15%, moisture content of around 15% and a biomass content of over 50%.
Marcus Von Reden of Convaero GmbH spoke about the possibilities of upgrading MSW by using the BioDry (tm) approach. BioDry uses a membrane cover for MSW that is rain resistant but at the same time allows moisture to escape from the heap. The MSW is piled into long rows over pipe-like air blowers which are used to aerate the heaps, while at the same time a leachate gutter system collects excess moisture from the bottom of the heap. After 6 - 8 days, the heap is turned by a special machine, to avoid over-compaction. By the end of the process, 43% of the received MSW can be produced as an SRF, with moisture content of lower than 18%. Marcus presented reference plants in Poland, Turkey, Iraq, Romania and Indonesia.
Luc Rieffel of the Walter Materials Handling company next spoke about AF projects from around the world, including a tyre-derived fuel project in Morocco, RDF from MSW and another using whole tyres. The company can supply all of the different types of equipment that may be required for AF projects, including automated crane systems, extraction and dosing systems and double gate airlock valves used for sending whole tyres into the kiln.
Heikki Jyrkinen of CrossWrap told delegates about the benefit of wrapping bales as a solution for RDF/SRF handling, transport and storage. Baled material is dense (approximately 1.5t/m3) and compact, offering an economical solution for transportation, while at the same time allowing easy handling without littering and odour, as well as being an easy intermediate storage option. The wrapping material is a strength-enhancing UV-resistant PE stretch film, which costs around Euro3 for the kilo of plastic used for each bale. CrossWrap also offers an automatic bale opener machine, which can open up to 60 bales per hour, each up to 1.5t, for a cost of as low as Euro0.1 per bale.
Thomas Jennewein of FLSMidth Pfister spoke about the crucial topic of dosing of AF. The ProsCon 'prospective control' system is a rotary weighfeeder vessel positioned on load cells which allows continuous accurate dosage of a variety of materials, including even problematic AF and also pulverised coal and lignite.
Leos Volesky of Schenck Process next compared and contrasted the difference between dream solutions for handling, storage and dosing of AF and those solutions that have to exist in the real world. The differences typically come from time pressures, return on investment criteria and from engineering pressures. Leos suggested the use of more objective thinking during the design process, and also urged the audience to understand the limits of the equipment and to accept them. Thorough testing of potential AF is crucial to equipment design or selection.
Luigi Di Matteo, CEO of a German family-owned company with an Italian name, firstly stated that all of the company's products are 100% made in Germany. Di Matteo manufactures equipment to achieve all steps from waste reception, through RDF/SRF production to dosing and combustion, including the well-known award-winning Di Matteo WeighTube weighfeeder.
Ted T Reese, director of commercial development at Cadence Environmental Energy, spoke about his company's solutions to improve AF combustion. The classic technology proposed by the company is the feedfork, which can dose whole tyres into the middle of longer kilns, while the company's Mixing Air technology promotes thorough mixing of combustion gases, improving fuel burnout and increasing potential TSR. Larger particle sizes, delayed ignition rates and typically lower sourcing cost can all lead to higher CO levels, but this can be largely avoided through kiln atmosphere destratification with the use of the mixing air approach. After gaining experience and knowledge of refineries from an early-career job, Ted pointed out that the fluidised catalytic cracker (FCC) which is at the heart of many oil refineries tends to produce FCC slurry oil at a rate of about 1 - 2% of throughput. The slurry's oil-contaminated solid component can be used as a high CV AF (18 - 21MJ/kg), which is generated at a rate of 5-10,000t/year depending on the refinery. Crude oil also includes sediment at a rate of 1 - 2%, with a 400,000bpd refinery producing the material at a rate of around 100t/week, at a CV of around 24MJ/kg.
Presenters from Yara, Robecco and Thorwesten Vent next spoke about the means to avoid, to prevent and to deal with explosions caused by combustion of conventional and alternative fuels. Oxygen is always present in all process chambers, and of course there is the presence of fuel, but ignition sources may be present in the form of hot surfaces, flames and hot gases, mechanical sparks, electrical equipment sparks and static electric sparks. Robecco provides sensing equipment that can detect the incipient conditions of a fie hazard. Yara provides systems and gases that can be used for emergency explosion prevention and to extinguish smoldering fires, by pumping inert gases such as CO2, nitrogen or even noble gases into a mill, for example, to reduce the O2 level to lower than 2%. Cement plants may have been designed with long ducts which allow flame propagation fronts to accelerate to even 200m/s, which lead to the destruction of any vessel, while non-reclosing vents will allow oxygen ingress and subsequent fire development. Thorwesten Vent can help cement plants to avoid these fire- and explosion-related problems.
Michalis Akritopolous of Cinar Ltd gave the penultimate presentation at the conference, on AF combustion optimisation using computation fluid dynamics modeling of process flow. Cinar's modeling software allows the modeling of a connection between combustion gases and mineral development. Michalis pointed out that the potential for firing AF through the main burner is relatively limited compared to combustion in the calciner, where the TSR can surpass 60%: larger particles can be injected and depending on the fuel used there is a possibility to reduce NOx and CO. However, flow stratification, hot spots, oxygen levels and temperature variations can all affect AF combustion. Michalis pointed out that an semi-iterative CFD approach to process design can provide efficiency improvements and very fast payback.
Ed Verhamme reascended to the stage to give the final presentation at the conference, on the combustion of obsolete pesticides in cement kilns. A trial burn in an un-named central Asian cement kiln allowed investigators to conclude that burning pesticides does not affect emissions from the kiln, that the wastes are well destroyed in the kiln, that there in no additional pollution from the kiln and that the quality of the clinker and the cement is not adversely affected. There are stores of obsolete pesticides around the world that are difficult to destroy: cement kilns seem to be an effective solution to the problem, particularly in former Soviet-states in Asia and Eastern Europe. A disposal gate fee of perhaps Euro2000/t means that the investment in equipment to allow the material to be processed is probably economic, and the equipment can then be used for other hazardous waste and other AF.
Conference prize giving and farewells
On the conference questionnaire, delegates cited the networking opportunities, technical content of the conference, the quality of the exhibition and the quality of the hotel and the quality of the hotel food very highly. The 'value for money' mark of the event was the highest ever recorded for the CemFuels Conference.
Furthermore, delegates made the following comments:
- Keep up the good work!
- Very good timing as usual.
- Congratulations
- Entire facilitation was very good!
- To become a competent leaderin the AF sector, one must attend international seminars especially Global CemFuels (Italcementi delegate)
At the event's Farewell Party, a number of awards were presented. The Yara, Robecco and Thorwesten Vent stand was awarded the prize for 'best exhibition booth.' In the best presentation awards, voted for by the delegates, Neville Roberts of N&P was third, Jan Theulen of HeidelbergCement was second and Ted T Reese was the winner. It was announced at the event that the 10th anniversary Global CemFuels conference, exhibition and awards will take place in February 2016, in Prague. We look forward to seeing you there!
