Displaying items by tag: Plant

Germany: Holcim Süddeutschland plans to co-process glass waste at the Dotternhausen cement plant. It has submitted an application to the local government to store 625t of glass waste at the site, according to the Zollern-Alb-Kurier newspaper. The glass waste will be used as a substitute for clay in the production process and it is proposed to be used at a rate no greater than 0.7t/hr. The plant will receive glass waste with a thickness no more than 3mm that cannot be recycled for glass production. The waste will be sourced from a processing plant in Bad Wurzach.

US: Lehigh Cement’s is preparing to co-process ‘raggertail’ at its Glens Falls plant in New York state. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has prepared a draft air pollution permit for the unit. It is accepting public comments until late December 2018.

Raggertail is derived from non-recyclable ‘raggertail’ residuals processed by Frontier Fiber from Norampac and Greenpac recycled paper mills in Niagara Falls. It consists of approximately 60% plastic and 40% fibre (biomass). Emissions testing performed at the plant while burning the alternative fuel on a trial basis demonstrated that its use will not cause ambient impacts above State guideline concentrations. At present the cement plant’s kiln is powered by natural gas and coal.

Argentina: Geocycle Argentina has signed a framework agreement with the Ministry of Environment to co-process tyres at Holcim Argentina’s Capdeville cement plant in Las Heras. The arrangement is also intended to minimise population’s levels of the Aedes aegypti or yellow fever mosquito, according to MDZ Online. Improper disposal of tyres and the subsequent accumulation of water can lead to higher breeding levels of the mosquito. The insect is a vector in the transmission of the Zika, Dengue and Chikungunya viruses.

UK: N+P says that Subcoal production will start at its Teeside plant in July 2019. Following nearly a year of de-commissioning and site preparation works. The project has achieved financial close and construction work has commenced following nearly a year of de-commissioning and site preparation works. The plant will consume 0.25Mt/yr of commercial and industrial waste feedstock and will produce 0.19Mt/yr of N+P’s Subcoal product. The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor is Fairport Engineering.

The Teeside plant will supply Subcoal pellets to different outlets including Simec Atlantis Energy (SAE) for use in its Uskmouth 220MW coal-fired power station, which is being converted from coal to waste-derived fuel. N+P and SAE have agreed a fuel-supply agreement to supply nearly 1Mt/yr to the power station once it has been converted to using Subcoal in place of coal in 2021. To meet demand for the contract, N+P plans to build a further three Subcoal plants.

Ireland: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) says it requires more information on Irish Cement’s plans to use alternative fuels and raw materials at its Limerick plant before it can grant it a licence. The request has delayed the decision by the environmental body on whether the cement producer can co-process alternative fuels at the site.

It has asked the cement producer to provide more information on: waste acceptance capacity; raw materials, intermediates, products used or generated on-site; best available technology; emissions to atmosphere; human health; hydrology and hydrogeology; appropriate assessment; accidents and disasters; and baseline reports. The EPA added that before it could conduct a licence review it must out a ‘thorough’ environmental assessment of the proposals in the review application, including an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and an appropriate assessment. The EPA also said that it had received over 3500 individual public submissions on the application by Irish Cement.

Irish Cement wants to implement a Euro10m upgrade to its plant. This will include the development of land to facilitate on site handling, storage and introduction of alternative fuels with conveyor, storage tanks, uploading station, handling building, cooling tower and associated ancillary work. It first announced plans to co-process alternative fuels at the plant in late 2015.

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.

Russia: LafargeHolcim Russia has won a Change Management Visionary award for its co-processing activities at its Ferzikovo cement plant in Kaluga. The company says it is the only business licensed to co-process waste by the Russian government. The Geocycle operation at the unit processed around 26,000t of solid municipal waste in 2017 sourced from the Kaluga and Moscow regions. The plant processed 1000t/month of plastic packaging waste in 2017 and this is expected to rise to 2000t/month in 2018. The company says that its treatment is aligned with European Union waste treatment principles.

US: The city of Fort Myers in Florida is planning to send 30,000t of ‘toxic’ sludge for disposal at LafargeHolcim’s Theodore cement plant in Alabama. The waste will be transported by truck to LafargeHolcim quarry north of Crystal River for pre-treatment and then onto the Theodore plant, according to the Citrus Country Chronicle newspaper. The company hopes to start the removal process in October 2018 and complete it by the end of the year. Permit application for the removal process are still on-going. The ‘toxic’ sludge came from the city’s water plant. It was dumped in fields in Fort Myers from the 1960s to the 1990s.

China: Anhui Conch’s Xing'an cement plant in Guangxi region has commissioned a municipal sold waste (MSW) project. The project was started in late 2017 and it has had investment of US$19m. It is intended to process 100,000t/yr of MSW and 49,500t/yr of sewage.

Denmark: Metso plans to relocate its waste recycling business to a newly built factory and office. Part of the relocation costs will be funded by selling the current property and estate in Horsens and the company has already received an offer from a local developer for its current site. The transaction is subject to final approval of the area's development plan by the Horsens city council. The new facility is estimated to be ready in 2020.

Metso's recycling business provides equipment and services for mechanical treatment of metal scrap and solid waste. The waste recycling business has about 100 employees in addition to an extensive distributor and agent network. In total, over 800 Metso waste shredders are currently in operation globally, most of them in China, the UK, Germany, France and Italy.