Displaying items by tag: Plant

Canada: The Nova Scotia provincial government has given permission for Lafarge Canada’s Brookfield plant to burn tyres for one year. Environment Minister Iain Rankin said that the results would be examined at the end of the pilot period.

“My decision is based on the science and evidence associated with this application as well as the public feedback received which helped to shape conditions of the approval,” said Rankin. “This pilot will confirm if the company can reduce current carbon emission levels at its Brookfield plant as the information provided in the application indicates.”

Terms of the pilot project include limiting tyre-derived fuel to 15% of total daily input and no more than 20t/day, forming a community liaison committee to keep residents informed of the project’s status and address their questions and to develop a complaints resolution plan.

Lafarge Canada will also be required to submit plans for related activities and apply for a temporary industrial approval to operate the pilot project. The required plans include: tyre storage and waste management; air dispersion modelling; continuous monitoring of emissions; stack testing before and after the pilot begins; and an emergency response if there is a malfunction of the kiln. The results of the pilot will be made public through a community liaison committee.

However, the plan has received criticism from the local community on environmental grounds. The local press has also questioned whether the provincial government is subsidising Lafarge Canada’s fuel costs as the region charges consumers recycling tariffs on goods such as tyres. A previous plan by the cement producer to burn tyres in the region in 2007 was blocked by the local government.

France: LafargeHolcim has launched a Euro100m upgrade to build a new clinker production line at its Martres cement plant in Tolosane. Construction work on the new line will start in the third quarter of 2018 and will be completed in mid-2020. A key feature of the upgrade will be a focus on using alternative fuels in the new kiln, particularly tyres. Following the project’s completion the plant will have a substitution rate of 80% from 30% at present.

Germany: Schwenk Zement is planning to build a 47 metre high sewage sludge silo at its Allmendingen cement plant. It also wants to build a sewage sludge storage facilty with a capacity of 9600m³, according to the Schwäbische Zeitung newspaper. It intends to use the sludge as an alternative fuel for its kiln. Sludge will be delivered from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.

US: St Marys Cement’s Charlevoix plant has remained open following a fire that destroyed its alternative fuels storage facility on 7 June 2017. No one was injured in the incident and work on the plant’s expansion project is continuing, according to the Charlevoix Courier newspaper. The warehouse containing refuse-derived fuels (RDF) caught fire on the evening on the day and was swiftly extinguished by fire services. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has been alerted about the incident.

Nigeria: Lafarge Africa has reported a record alternative fuels substitution rate of up to 46% at its Ewekoro cement plant. The cement producer reported that its energy optimisation strategy achieved strong performance compensating for gas shortages at a relatively low cost. It added that made progress during the first quarter of 2017 towards initial alternative fuels conversion work at its Mfamosing line II at Ashaka Cement.

Germany: Thomas Strobl, the Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, has opened Alba Nordbaden’s refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in Karlsruhe. The plant has an RDF production capacity of 33,000t/yr for use at power and cement plants. The unit uses a Lindner Polaris 2800 shredder that can shred materials to 80mm or less in a single step, according to Construction Cayola. Alba Nordbaden specified a crusher that could handle an input rate of 20t/hr.

Israel: The Hiriya Recycling Park near Tel Aviv has launched a refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The new plant cost US$111m and it will produce about 500t/day of RDF, according to the Jerusalem Post. Partners on the project include the Hiriya Recycling Park, the Dan Municipal Sanitation Association, Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises and the Veridis environmental service corporation. RDF from the plant will be use to substitute about 20% of the Nesher cement plant’s fuel.

Namibia: Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has inaugurated Namibia’s first solid recovered waste plant in Windhoek. The US$15.7m unit is a joint-venture between local company Rent-A-Drum and Ohorongo Cement, a subsidiary of Germany’s Schwenk Zement, according to the Xinhua News Agency. Rent-A-Drum will collect more than 12,000t of non-recyclable waste material that will be converted into alternative fuel for use by Ohorongo Cement. The waste plant has created 60 jobs.

Lithuania: The Lithuanian Parliament Committee on Environment Protection is evaluating alternative fuels options at the Akmenes Cementas plant including refuse-derived fuel (RDF), industrial waste and sewage sludge. The cement producer has presented a Euro7m plan to install new equipment to allow it to use up to 150,000t/yr of waste fuels, according to the Lithuanian News Agency. It has also asked the government to ensure that its can use waste produced in Lithuania to cut its costs and complete internationally.

Spain: Geocycle has increased the amount of waste it processes at its Albox plant in Almeria by 35% year-on-year to 40,150t in 2016. Solid and liquid waste is processed at the plant for subsequent use at cement plants operated by LafargeHolcim. The plant employs 35 workers directly and supports about 100 indirect jobs locally. Geocycle plans to invest around Euro250,000 in 2017 on safety and environmental systems and on its laboratory.