Displaying items by tag: Government

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.

India: UltraTech Cement’s Reddipalayam plant at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu has started receiving domestic waste from the Vellore Municipal Corporation. The shipments are part of a local smart city initiative, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. Normally the cement plant sources its waste-derived fuels from a 150km radius but a special exception has been made in this case.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the cement producer and municipal corporations in the state to supply regular consignments of non-biodegradable wastes. At present 24 municipalities and one corporation in the state have signed contracts with UltraTech Cement to supply waste-derived fuels.

Indonesia: Environmentalists have criticised a government plans to burn medical waste in cement kilns. Yuyun Ismawati, co-founder of environmental organisation Bali Fokus, told the Jakarta Post newspaper that burning the clinical waste could cause pollution and that it was only an emergency solution. The Environment and Forestry Ministry asked four cement companies in April 2018 for help with disposing medical waste after two of the six medical waste companies in the country stopped operations as a result of legal sanctions.

India: The government of Trichy in Tamil Nadu has increased its supply of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to UltraTech Cement’s plant at Ariyalur. In has increased its supply by 30t/day from 30t/day at present for the next 10s years, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. The current agreement to supply 30t/day was arranged in February 2018.

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has been awarded an honorary distinction by the Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development for its use of alternative fuels. Its cement plant has a substitution rate of over 40%. The cement producer was also praised for other environmental improvements to its production line including the use of fabric filters for dust removal, the equipment and mode of operation for reduced emissions of air pollutants, the equipment for reduced electricity consumption that includes vertical grinding mills and the equipment for cutting down on thermal energy consumption with the use of waste heat recovery.