Displaying items by tag: LafargeHolcim

France: LafargeHolcim France and ADEME Occitanie, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency for the region, have inaugurated a waste recovery unit at the Port-la-Nouvelle cement plant. The project has an investment of Euro7.5m with support from ADEME. It has included the installation of a drying workshop, a storage and feeding system to the kiln and a chlorine bypass for the kiln. It is intended to help the cement plant use solid recovered fuel (SRF) achieve a co-processing rate of over 90% by 2022.

The cement plant in Occitanie has been using alternative fuels including used tires, animal meal or industrial wood since 1988. Following the installation of a crushed solid waste valorisation workshop in 2011 it achieved a substitution rate of over 60% in 2018.

Spain: Members of the Andalusian Cement Producers’ Association (AFCA) have renewed their commitment to sustainable development with the signing of the VI Agreement for Energy Recovery. All six cement producers, including LafargeHolcim, HeidelbergCement and Cemex, which operate in Andalusia submitted to the agreement, which entails a commitment to using refuse-derived fuels (RDF) at a higher rate than the minimum established by Spanish law.

Canada: Reports from Lafarge Canada’s Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia have indicated the effectiveness of burning tyres as fuel there. CBC has reported that, as part of a 12-month investigation, scrap tyres were burned ‘off and on’ for a month at the 0.6Mt/yr integrated cement plant. Following further staff training, tyres will replace coal in the kilns on a full-time basis. Environment and Public Affairs Director Robert Cummings has said that there has been no notable change in emissions. Lafarge Canada will release the results of an emissions check including testing for low-concentration materials not covered by emissions monitoring in early January 2020.

Argentina: LafargeHoclim’s Malagueño plant has started processing municipal waste from Villa Carlos Paz since mid-June 2019. An agreement between the city government and the company was signed following the endorsement of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Province, according to the La Voz newspaper. Non-recyclable dry solid urban waste is delivered from the city to a Geocycle Argentina unit before being used as an alternative fuel at the integrated cement plant.

Hungary: Lafarge Cement Hungary plans to spend Euro6.2m on an upgrade at its integrated Kiralyegyháza plant. The investment will be used to increase its alternative fuels substitution rate to 80% from 60% at present, according to MTI. The unit’s CO₂, emissions will also be reduced by 10%. The upgrade will start in late 2019 with expansion of the plant’s alternative fuels storage capacity planned for the first half of 2020.

El Salvador: Geocycle, the waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, plans to invest US$1m in new equipment. It will be used to process solid waste before co-processing at a cement plant, according to La Prensa Gráfica newspaper. LafargeHolcim operates two integrated cement plants in the country.

Mexico: Geocycle Mexico processed 0.41Mt of industrial and municipal waste in 2018. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim estimates that it will process around 0.46Mt in 2019. It supports the handling, treatment and co-processing of waste at LafargeHolcim’s cement plants.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines says it is importing alternative fuels or processed engineered fuels (PEF) as it cannot source them locally. It said it was ready to ‘cooperate and provide more information and clarity’ on PEFs in response to plans by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ban imports of waste. It added that a statement by the Environment Management Bureau had confirmed that PEFs conform to the DENR Administrative Order 2010-06: Guidelines on the Use of Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials in Cement Kilns.

The company said it started using PEF in 2018 and that it accounts for 5% of its alternative fuels consumption. It has been importing PEF to ports at Davao and Tagoloan. It conceded that if the DNER enacts its plans to ban waste imports it would follow government regulations.

The cement producer is responding to a trend against waste imports into South-East Asia. In May 2019 the Philippines recalled to ambassador to Canada in a row over mislabelled recyclable imports. Malaysia has also ordered plastic waste to be sent back to its originating countries.

Argentina: Geocycle has signed a three-year deal with the Province of Mendoza to use tyres at LafargeHolcim’s Capdeville cement plant. Geocycle has spent Euro1.15m on preparing a unit to process the tyres, according to the Los Andes newspaper. The waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has also worked with the local government on setting up collection points for residents to leave old tyres. Geocycle conducted a similar project in Jujuy province in 2018 and it plans to run a similar one in Cordoba province.

Egypt: Geocycle Egypt has opened a plant to process alternative fuels in Ain Sokhna. The unit had an investment of around US$12m, according to the Egypt Independent newspaper. The waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim will process agricultural and industrial waste into alternative fuels. It plans to supply 0.4Mt/yr to Lafarge Cemet Egypt’s Ain Sokhna plant.