Displaying items by tag: CRH

Philippines: CRH subsidiary Republic Cement and its waste management subsidiary Ecoloop are seeking to establish partnerships with 'sustainability-minded' organisations. BusinessWorld News has reported that Republic Cement and Ecoloop process waste for 12 private companies and 30 local government units. Philippines law will require that large organisations recover 80% of their plastic packaging waste by 2030. For 2023, the minimum is 20%.

Ecoloop managing director Angela Edralin-Valencia said “Our goal is to make our cement a greener and more environmentally friendly product. Our ambition is to replace 50% of our fuel consumption with alternative fuel." She added "A lot of investments have to be put in place from our end to get to that number, but we are still reviewing our options.”

UK: CRH subsidiary Tarmac has awarded a contract for the supply of solid recovered fuel (SRF) pellets for its Tunstead cement plant to Eco-Power Environmental. The supplier says that the fuel will come from its 125,000t/yr Humberside SRF pellet plant in Melton, East Riding of Yorkshire. It has spent Euro17m in recent upgrades to the plant. Its pellets offer up to 50% biomass content, calorific value in excess of 20MJ/kg, less than 0.5% chlorine, low ash content and the ability to be co-dosed with fossil fuels using existing equipment.

Tarmac Tunstead plant manager Chris Bradbury said “Reducing CO₂ at Tunstead is one of the team's top priorities and working closely with our colleagues in Sapphire we have made good progress with sustainable waste-derived fuels throughout 2020 and hope to go further in 2021.” He continued, “We got the opportunity of trialling the SRF pellets early in the year as a replacement for woodchips. The trial went well with only a few modifications required for the inside of the storage silo and feed out system. Once the moderations were completed, we extended the trial, which had great results. In June 2020 we then went on to continuous usage and from the start the pellets have proved to be a very stable fuel. These have been one of the main contributors to the continuous high waste-derived fuel substitution rate for fossil fuels from June to the end of the year.”

Philippines: Aboitiz Equity Ventures and CRH subsidiary Republic Cement says that it is seeking partners to supply it with plastic waste, which it can co-process as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The Business World newspaper has reported that the company has set a target of 10m plastic bags/day by 2021.

President and chief executive officer Nabil Francis said, “We would like to commit to a very ambitious target next year, and this target is to co-process not less than 10m equivalent of plastic bags/day, starting from the very beginning of next year.” Angela Edralin-Valencia, the resource recovery director of Republic Cement’s Ecoloop division, said, "It's going to be double what we are currently doing, and it's just the beginning.”

UK: CRH companies Tarmac and Sapphire Energy Recovery have installed a waste-derived fuel processing unit at the Tunstead cement plant in Derbyshire. The unit will produce 'specialised fuel,' a type of solid recovered fuel (SRF) for the cement plant.

"Using waste-derived fuels is well established in the industry but having our own fuel processing plant on site is a first for us. This project from initial concept to actual results, has been a fantastic collaborative experience between Sapphire's commercial, technical, operational and environmental teams, with strong support from the Tarmac kiln and permitting teams,” said David Wilson, Sapphire’s commercial manager. He added that the companies can adjust the blend and amount they use to suit the production process.

Ireland: The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a licence to CRH subsidiary Irish Cement for the incineration of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), including tyres, plastics and animal tissues at its 1.0Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Mungret, County Limerick. The Limerick Leader has reported that it will be the second of Irish Cement’s two plants to transition from fossil fuels, after its Platin plant in Meath. The company has said that the intended upgrade is vital to the plant’s future and will create security for its 80 employees, in addition to generating 60 jobs throughout the course of its installation. 4500 people supported Limerick Against Pollution (LAP) in lobbying the EPA against granting its permission following the decision of the Irish planning appeals board An Bord Pleanála in favour of the installation. LAP has 28 days in which to appeal the EPA’s ruling. A protest march will take place in the city of Limerick in October 2019.

The company’s 2009 incineration licence for its Limerick plant expired due to inactivity. It announced its renewed intention for RDF usage at the plant in December 2015.

UK: Tarmac has ordered a solid recovered fuel (SRF) handling system from Saxlund International to increase the capability to utilise alternative fuels at its Dunbar integrated cement plant. The SRF system will be installed in the second half of 2019. It is designed for the reception of trucks and storage of fuel in two bunkers. The new system includes processing of fuel to remove ferrous and oversize particles before weighing and dosing into a pneumatic conveying system for kiln injection. The Dunbar plant will use SRF supplied by Hamilton - Solid Recovered Fuel.

“We are delighted to be involved in the development of this new SRF facility at the Dunbar Cement works. The overall system for the reception, storage and conveying of SRF fuel will help to ensure a highly resilient and robust solution for our client,” said Mark Neal, sales manager at Saxlund International.

Philippines: Republic Cement has signed a co-processing agreement with Century Pacific Group to burn post-consumer plastic waste as an alternative fuel. The deal is part of a move by the group to become ‘plastic neutral’ by 2020, according to the Philippine Star newspaper. Century Pacific Group includes brands such as Century canned tuna and the Shakey’s Pizza chain. Republic Cement is licensed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to use and dispose of waste streams through cement kiln co-processing.

Philippines: Republic Cement has signed a memorandum of agreement with Nestlé Philippines to co-process post-consumer plastic waste. The agreement was signed by chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Kais Marzouki and Corporate Affairs Head Attorney Ernesto Mascenon of Nestlé Philippines, and president Renato Sunico and director Nabil Francis of Republic Cement and Building Materials.

“Nestlé is aiming for plastic neutrality, which is essentially recovering plastics equal to what we produce. Aside from our current collection and recycling initiatives, we believe this effort will help us gather and co-process bigger volumes of post-consumer waste,” said Marzouki.

In April 2018, Nestlé globally announced a commitment that 100% of its packaging will be recyclable or reusable by 2025. The company’s vision is that none of its waste ends up in landfill or as litter. Nestlé has initiated and is driving waste collection efforts with various partners.

Ireland: Irish Cement has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala for its plans to burn tyres and tyres and solid recovered waste at its Limerick plant. Local councils originally approved the project in 2017 but this was appealed to the national An Bord Pleanala following local protests. Environmental groups say they will continue to fight the plan.

Ireland: Irish Cement has been designated a national priority site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The subsidiary of CRH has been placed on a list of eight industrial sites that have failed to meet the necessary environmental standards. Six of the sites accounted for more than half of the complaints made to the EPA in 2017. The agency plans to update its priority list on a quarterly basis.