Displaying items by tag: Government

Spain: Cementos Alfa, part of Cementos Portland Valderrivas Group, has applied to its local environmental government body to increase its biomass co-processing rate. At present the cement plant in Cantabria is allowed to use up to 150t/day, according to the El Diario Montañés newspaper. The unit also spent Euro9m on energy savings upgrades to the main burner in 2018.

The plant produced around 0.5Mt/yr of cement in 2018 with a production capacity of 1.1Mt/yr. Production is expected to rise to 0.6Mt/yr in 2019.

India: Local government bodies in Chennai in Tamil Nadu have complained of the cost of sending plastics waste to cement plants. Five municipalities are spending of US$40,000/month on transport costs, according to the New Indian Express. Since 2017, 54 local government bodies have sent waste to cement plants for co-processing. Of these, 49 local bodies send it to UltraTech Cement’s plant at Ariyalur. However, the plant only pays transport costs for the waste sourced within a 100km radius. The state is looking into supplying plastics waste to nearer buyers.

Spain: Cemex has signed a Euro117m deal with the local government to convert the land used by the Gádor cement plant in Almeria for use by new projects. These will include projects in solar and wind power generation, waste fuel production from plastics and biomass and a new concrete batching plant, according to Teleprensa. The initiative is intended to create around 400 jobs.

The cement producer has also signed a similar agreement for its Lloseta in Baleares. The company announced in mid-October 2018 that it was planning to close the two plants due to reduced demand for cement and mounting European CO₂ emissions regulations.

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.

India: The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) is considering using agricultural biomass as an alternative fuel. It says it is willing to offer support to different state governments to help find a way of delivering biomass directly from fields to cement producers, according to the Times of India newspaper. The CMA says it is offering a solution to the dust pollution caused by crop burning. However, the industry needs to resolves problems with transportation and seasonality. The CMA hopes to contact local governments and organisations to find a solution to these issues in 2019.

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.

India: The Pollution Control Board of Andhra Pradesh (APPCB) has co-ordinated a brainstorming session on ‘Co-processing of Municipal Solid Waste and Plastic in Cement Industries’ in which cement producers, the Swachh Andhra Corporation, the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and others groups participated. The APPCB is trying to encourage the use of alternative fuels in the cement industry by overcoming funding issues, according to the Hindu newspaper. APPCB chairman BSS Prasad said that the board wants to help local government bodies connect with the cement industry.

India: A group of cement producers in the Kalaburagi district have stopped using refuse-derived fuel (RDF) sourced from Bengaluru on economic grounds after a six-month trial period. Although the manufacturers do not pay for the RDF they say that it costs more than coal once transportation costs are taken into account, according to the Hindu newspaper. RDF from the city is transported over 500km to the plants.

In a meeting with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palik (BBMP), an administrative city council body, one producer alleged that the RDF supplied by the city was not meeting pre-determined agreed moisture content, presentation in compressed bales and that the local government had promised to pay for the transport costs. An official from the BBMP argued back that the body was not prepared to pay transport costs for RDF and that coal costs US$82/t compared to the RDF transport cost of US$34/t. However, the BBMP has agreed to supply RDF in compressed bales and producers have welcome this concession as it will reduce logistics costs.

Canada: The Environment Department has approved plans by the Lafarge Brookfield cement plant to burn tyres in a kiln in a one-year pilot project. The company will be obliged to conduct monitor air quality, groundwater and surface water in the area during the trial, according to the Canadian Press newspaper. Industrial approvals are normally issued for 10 years but the shorter period will allow the authorities to scrutinise the situation more closely. Lafarge Canada plans to burn up to 5200t/yr in the pilot.

The decision to allow the pilot to go ahead follows local criticism of the project. A previous attempt by the cement producer to co-process tyres at the plant was blocked in 2007. The provincial Supreme Court dismissed a residents' group's bid for a judicial review of the pilot in March 2018.

Dominican Republic: Alejandro Ramirez, the president of Cemex Dominicana, has welcomed the approval of a new waste management law, including support for the co-processing of alternative fuels. Earlier in 2018 a bill on solid waste management was introduced to the government that promoted co-processing solid waste and implementing a selective tax on products that create it.