Global CemFuels News

Denmark: Norway-based Geminor has commissioned a new refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production plant in Aalborg, Jutland. The plant is equipped with a windshifter separator, allowing it to extract up to 70% of plastic in residual waste, in addition to metals and wood. This produces a heavy bio-RDF with low fossil content, of the type previously developed by the company at its HUB research facility in Landskrona, Sweden. Though more expensive to produce than other types of RDF, the company believes the fraction offers higher profitability due to its taxation benefits.

China: Anhui Conch Cement plans to acquire an additional stake in industrial solid and hazardous waste management company China Conch Environment Protection. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that the group currently holds a 14% stake in the company.

UK: Mexico-based Cemex has inaugurated the Climafuel unit at Rugby cement plant. Climafuel is a waste derived fuel which is made using domestic and commercial waste. The upgrade is intended to allow the cement plant to operate at a 100% alternative fuels (AF) substitution rate. This is the first Cemex plant to be able to do this.

Sergio Menéndez, the President of Cemex Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia, said, “With the completion of this considerable development, we have set new records in alternative fuel substitution, the highest of any of our plants and eventually expect to phase out completely the usage of fossil fuels at the plant. We expect the Rugby plant to be a model for other Cemex cement plants around the world.”

Switzerland: Switzerland-based ABB is launching the ProKiln inlet gas sampling system to help cement producers reduce the volatility associated with using higher levels of alternative fuels (AF) and allow kilns to run for longer. The product offers probe cleaning with increased mechanical strength, which includes a dual probe retraction system to ensure no sampling interruption.

The supplier says that its product uses an extractive filter in the tip of the probe which separates sample gas from the dust load to reduce problems faced with scaling of material when gathering data. It also uses two air blasters to clean the tip to maintain a sample path for analysis. A three-dimensional printed stainless steel nozzle is intended to ensure that no blockages at the tip of the probe occur and the system is mounted on a buggy running on a retractor which carries the probe in and out of the kiln allowing it to be cleaned automatically. Measuring 3m long, the gas probe is water cooled with an extractive filter placed at the sample and flow is maintained by the blasters. A cooling system also provides recirculating water for temperature control.

The ProKiln has been tested for six months at Holcim’s Lägerdorf site in Germany, a cement plant that has an AF substitution rate of over 80%.

UK: Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF) exports from the UK were 1.6Mt in the financial year which ended on 31 March 2022, down by 2.3% year-on-year from 2021 financial year levels. Waste management consultant Footprint Services reported that March 2022 RDF and SRF exports were 136,000t, down by 23% year-on-year from 176,000t in March 2021. Geminor exported 29,200t of RDF and SRF during the month, constituting a 22% market share. Its full-year exports in the 2022 financial year were 280,000t.

Geminor UK country manager James Maiden forecast that the decline in UK RDF and SRF exports is beginning to level off at a volume between 1Mt/yr and 1.5Mt/yr from the 2023 financial year.