Displaying items by tag: Egypt

Switzerland: LafargeHolcim’s global waste management business, Geocycle, treated 10Mt of waste in 2017, an increase of 13% year-on-year from 2016. It co-processed all types of waste in cement kilns including solid shredded waste from industrial and municipal origin, spent solvents, used tires, waste oils, contaminated soils, industrial and sewage sludges, as well as demolition waste.

“At LafargeHolcim we offer solutions which facilitate the simultaneous recycling and recovery of waste. We have ambitious plans to continue investing in all parts of the world in order to bring the most advanced technology and solutions to our partners and play a role in solving the global waste problem,” said Jan Jenisch, the chief executive officer of LafargeHolcim.

In Europe and North America, the main growth area for LafargeHolcim’s global waste management business was industrial waste, while in Africa more biomass waste such as rice and coffee husks were treated. The strongest growth rates for municipal solid waste (MSW) were seen in Asia and Latin America, where waste infrastructures are still developing and municipalities continue to seek more sustainable solutions for the growing volume of household waste.

In 2017 LafargeHolcim built three new major waste treatment facilities: Kujawy in Poland, El Sokhna in Egypt and Oum Azza in Morocco. It said that Oum Azza is the first waste pre-processing platform for MSW in the Middle East and Africa.

Egypt: Chemical Industries Holding, a industrial chemical manufacturer, has formed a committee for a consultancy to study offering a mixture of coal and alternative fuels for National Cement. The committee will also consider the financial and technical aspects of supplying a cement mill for the cement producer.

Egypt: Khaled Fahmy, the Minister of Environment, has said that government ministers have approved a plan submitted by the Ministry of Environment that seeks to encourage the increase in waste used as energy in cement plants to 15% by 2030. He said that the cabinet adopted the plan, adding that discussions are underway with heads of plants to discuss problems they face in using waste as fuel, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has asked operators in the cement industry to start studying their energy consumption and to start suggesting ways they can increase their rate of co-processing of alternative fuels.

The plan hopes to utilise nearly 22Mt of solid waste and 30Mt of agricultural residues to produce the refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy are also preparing legislation to encourage investors to start waste-to-energy businesses.

"The real problems facing investors in the waste recycling business is the lack of commitment by cleaning companies to provide the required quantities of waste to be recycled and used as an alternative fuel," said Fahmy. The ministry is also trying to improve the performance of waste management vehicles with new technology.

Egypt: A report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has said that increased use of alternative fuels in the cement industry could save up to US$51m/yr by 2025. The study ‘Unlocking Value: Alternative Fuels for Egypt’s Cement Industry’ assessed the potential for producers to increase the use of alternative fuels and recommend sustainable market solutions. Those alternative fuels include municipal solid waste, agricultural waste, sewage, and old tyres. By 2025, the study suggests, alternative fuels could replace about 1.9Mt of coal and prevent the release of 3.9Mt of CO².

“Egypt is executing a wide array of initiatives to provide new sources of energy,” said Ramon Piza, president of Cemex Egypt. “We believe that all sectors, public and private, should collaborate and join forces to facilitate the usage of alternative fuel to further support these initiatives and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The study found that the country produces enough alternative fuels to power the entire cement sector. It included a mapping tool that pinpoints the location of cement plants, sources of alternative fuels, and transport links. However, it found that several obstacles prevent cement producers from using alternative fuels, including the lack of a well-established supply chain that would collect, process, and deliver waste to cement plants. The report recommends that market players must come to clear and fair commercial and quality arrangements ensuring a secure supply and return on investment, a fair pricing mechanism, and regulatory improvements to increase waste collection and treatment efficiency.

The report was supported by the governments of Denmark and Italy, the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund, and the Earth Fund Platform. It is part of a larger effort by the IFC to combat climate change, improve waste management, and support the global cement industry. The IFC has invested $4bn in 180 projects in the cement sector during the last 55 years. IFC’s current cement portfolio includes 30 investments and 10 advisory projects.

Egypt: A study led by the Ministry of Industry says that the substation rate of alternative fuels used by cement plants is set to increase to 30% by 2025. At present the co-processing rate is 6.4%, according to the Daily News Egypt newspaper. The Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil added that he expects that the total coal consumption in cement plants will reach 9.7Mt/yr by 2025. Increased use of alternative fuels is also expected to save the industry US$50m/yr by 2025.

The study was carried out by the Ministry of Industry, International Finance Corporation, the Ministry of Environment and the Cement Division of the Building Materials Chamber at the Federation of Egyptian Industries. It used a sample of 14 cement plants in the country that represents three quarters of the operational plants in the market.

Egypt: According to Reuters, Arabian Cement Company has commissioned new alternative fuel processing machinery at its plant in Suez.

The state-of-the-art FLSmidth HOTDISC^TM allows Arabian Cement's plant to rely completely on coal and alternative fuels to run its operations. Moreover, it enables the plant to operate its kilns using alternative fuel materials directly, without the need to pre-treat them. Arabian Cement now has a designed fuel mix of 70% coal and 30% alternative fuels. The alternative fuel that will be used will be a mixture of agricultural wastes, municipal sludge and refuse-derived fuels (RDF). Alternative fuel use is expected to result in around 60,000t/yr of reduced CO₂ emissions.

Egypt: Lafarge Industrial Ecology (Ecocem) has signed two major contracts to manage and operate existing refuse-derived fuel (RDF) platforms in Suez and Qalyubeya in Egypt.

In an effort to continue its efficient waste management processes, the company has signed a year agreement to renovate and upgrade the platforms in Suez and another separate 10-year agreement to manage and operate the existing platforms in Qalyubeya. Lafarge Ecocem has already added a new production line to the Suez platform and plans an additional line within one year of signing its contract with the governorate. The plant will produce 42,000t/yr of RDF and the investment will total US$1.66m.

Ecocem has also already added an extra line to the Qalyubea plant, in addition to renovating one production line. The company's future investments in the governorate will increase the RDF production capacity by 32,000t/yr to 280,000t/yr. Both investments at the Qalyubeya plant were funded by GIZ and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with a total Investment of US$1m.

"In line with our 'Building Egypt 2030' campaign, Lafarge is committed to help solve the issue of waste in Egypt and to continue taking the necessary steps towards sustainable development," said Hussein Mansi, CEO of Lafarge Egypt. "At Lafarge Egypt, we feel it is our responsibility as a leader in building solutions to be the major proponents in waste management and plan to continue finding many opportunities to make a difference."

Building on its waste management strategy, Lafarge Ecocem is committing to several additional long-term contracts with different governorates to help convert municipal solid wastes to alternative fuels. In addition, in March 2015, Lafarge Egypt and Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S A E signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a waste management framework of municipal and agricultural waste.

Lafarge Egypt and Ecocem have implemented many projects over the past three years in order to increase the use of alternative fuels and aim to achieve an average fuel substitution rate of 25% by the end of 2015. More than 260,000t of waste have been processed and fired in Lafarge's Sokhna plant since 2013, an equivalent of 100,000t of fossil fuels.

Egypt: Investments worth US$30bn in the coal industry are expected to be conducted within the next five years, according to Egypt's investment minister Ashraf Salman.

Salman said that there is 'full coordination' between the ministries of environment, electricity and investment to adhere to international environmental standards when using coal. Egypt's cabinet announced new rules on coal use in April 2015, which stipulate that coal imports can only take place after approval from the ministry of environment. The new rules are an amendment to a law on environmental affairs and allow the use of coal for cement, iron and steel, coke and aluminium production and in power plants.

Salman said that using coal as an energy source would decrease the dependency on natural gas as a primary energy source and petroleum products in steel and cement production. Despite the energy crisis, which has caused frequent and numerous power outages for years, the cabinet's approval of new coal use has caused controversy both within the government and outside.

Egypt: 90% of cement plants have agreed to use coal to increase their cement production, according to Egypt's Industrial Development Authority.

The authority is facilitating plant upgrades to enable coal use and ensuring that the necessary quantities of coal can be supplied, according to the head of the Industrial Development Authority, Ismail Gaber. He added that Egypt needs more than 32Mt/yr of cement to meet the needs of the domestic market.

In light of the population increase, the demand on energy has significantly increased in Egypt in recent years. The government agreed to include coal in the cement industry energy system in April 2014. Prior to that, coal was used only in the iron and steel, coke and aluminium industries. It is now also allowed to be used for electricity and cement production.

Egypt: Tourah Cement plans to invest US$39.4m to convert its plant to alternative fuels to recover production ability and profitability. Tourah did not make a profit in 2014.