Displaying items by tag: Tyres

Ireland: Irish Cement has been granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala for its plans to burn tyres and tyres and solid recovered waste at its Limerick plant. Local councils originally approved the project in 2017 but this was appealed to the national An Bord Pleanala following local protests. Environmental groups say they will continue to fight the plan.

Canada: A Nova Scotia judge has dismissed a residents' group's bid for a judicial review of the province's decision to allow the Lafarge Brookfield cement plant to burn tyres as fuel in its kiln. Justice James Chipman of the provincial Supreme Court said the environment minister's approval of a project at the plant was reasonable, according to the Canadian Press newspaper.

Lafarge plans to burn up to 5200t/yr of tyres. Once the cement producer has obtained an industrial approval for the one-year pilot project to co-process tyres the province’s waste diversion agency is expected to supply it with around 280,000t/yr of tyres. The scheme has received criticism locally because Nova Scotia residents pay an environmental handling fee when they buy new tyres, promoting commentators to suggest that this revenue would be subsidising a large company.

Canada: Lafarge Canada, University of Calgary, Queen’s University, and Pembina Institute have started a study on the environmental benefits of introducing lower carbon fuels at the Exshaw Cement Plant in Alberta. Eight lower carbon fuels will be researched, including construction renovation and demolition waste, non-recyclable plastic, carpets and textiles, shingles, treated wood products, wood products, rubber and tyre-derived fuels. These sources of fuel have been successfully used at other LafargeHolcim cement plants in Canada.

“Lab simulations, environmental studies, economics and logistics reviews are already underway. All research will be finalised by December 2019 with regular updates provided to the neighbouring communities via a Public Advisory Committee,” said Jim Bachmann, the plant manager of Exshaw .

Additional research by the partners will measure the environmental components associated with the sourcing, processing and full-scale commercial operation of each lower carbon fuel compared to fossil fuels. The project will also measure the benefits of diverting materials from landfills and determine optimal points in the cement manufacturing process to inject each fuel.

In addition to Lafarge’s support, research funding is being provided by Alberta Innovates, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Emissions Reduction Alberta and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It includes research by Millennium EMS Solutions Ltd., Geocycle, and WSP Global Inc.

As part of its 2030 Sustainability Plan, LafargeHolcim aims to replace 30 - 50% of fossil fuel use at its Canadian cement plants with lower carbon fuels by 2020.

South Africa: PPC plans to expand its alternative fuel programme as part of a cost saving drive. The producer plans to start using refuse derived fuel (RDF) at its De Hoek cement plant in the Western Cape, according to the Pretoria News newspaper. This will follow the current use of tyres as a fuel at the unit. RDF will be sourced from Cape Town, Drakenstein and Swartland. Savings are expected to be realised from the change in fuel mix by mid-2019.

PPC added that it didn’t expect any disruption to its supply of waste tyres at De Hoek caused from the shutdown of the government’s Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA). Chief executive officer (CEO) Johan Claassen said that the company had anticipated the closure and built up supplies of tyres at the plant and at a site at Vissershok.

Canada: The Environment Department is reviewing an application from Lafarge Canada to burn tyres at its Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. The government department has 60 days to approve or deny the application for a one-year pilot project, according to the Canadian Press news agency. However, the pilot project has faced opposition from local residents, environmental groups and the Province’s New Democratic Party.

Brazil: BNDES, the national development bank, has approved a US$7.4m loan for Votorantim Cimentos to co-process alternative fuels. The funds will be used to adapt the company's industrial units to process industrial waste, tyres and biomass, according to the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper. The cement producer is preparing to spend US$13.6m towards modifying its plants at Salto de Pirapora in Sao Paulo and Edealina in Goias.

Canada: The New Democratic Party has called for a ban of burning tyres in Nova Scotia. The opposition political party held a news conference with opponents of the government's decision in July 2017 to approve a one-year pilot project allowing Lafarge Canada to burn tyres for energy at the company's Brookfield cement plant, according to the Canadian Press newspaper. No tyres have been burned at the plant so far as the cement producer waits for industrial approval of the project from the provincial government.

Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre said the government’s decision was based on a Dalhousie University engineering study that was too narrow in its focus and wasn't peer reviewed. However the government has said that it used several technical studies to inform its decision. A group of local residents also started legal action in August 2017 on the grounds that the project violated the province's Environment Act.

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.

New Zealand: Golden Bay Cement has announced plans with Waste Management and the government to process tyres at its plant in Portland. The move follows the acquisition by Waste Management of the country’s largest tyre recycling business in 2016. The company is investing in shredders with funding from the Ministry for the Environment. It plans to have a shredding capacity of 30,000t/yr in place in Auckland by October 2017 with a unit to become operational in the South Island in early 2018.