Global CemFuels News

Israel: Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises has applied to the Environmental Protection Ministry for permission to replace petcoke in the kiln lines of its 5.0Mt/yr integrated Ramla cement plant in Central District with increased refuse-derived fuels (RDF) volumes. The Times of Israel has reported that the company has also applied for a relaxed emissions licence permitting higher metal levels than it may currently emit. Environmental advocacy organisation Adam Teva V’Din said that the Ramla plant’s emissions exceeded permitted mercury levels on 19 occasions in the first half of 2019. The organisation said that a permit of the kind applied for by Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises would violate the Clean Air Act. The company said, “The intake of alternative raw materials and alternative fuels takes place only after rigorous laboratory tests to ensure conformity of the material to both the production process and regulatory requirements.”

Spain: Cementos Portland Valderrivas has announced plans to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its 1.6Mt/yr integrated Alcalá de Guadaíra cement plant in Andalusia by 40% through the substitution of biomass for coal in its kiln lines. The company said that it regretted the confusion caused by “manipulation of information” around the plans in a local environmental group’s communiqué. It said, “the plant has all the permits and the cement group is looking forward to this new challenge.

Brazil: The Brazilian Portland Cement Association (ABCP) has joined with the Brazilian street cleaning, waste management and biogas associations in launching the Brazilian Waste Energy Recovery Front for the reuse of waste in energy production. The partners estimated that some 14.5GWh/yr of energy is available for generation from Brazil’s 79Mt/yr of solid urban waste alone. The ABCP said that it was enthused by the possibilities the waste holds for cement producers, and urged the Environment Ministry to ‘reduce regulations that hinder its use.’

Austria: Andritz has announced its upcoming line of ADuro primary and secondary shredders. The shredders, which it says are ‘for shredding refuse-derived fuels and municipal solid waste, as well as commercial or industrial waste,’ become available in July 2020. Andritz said, “The Andritz automation tools can be tailored to individual customer needs and provide powerful capabilities to monitor machine behaviour and improve plant reliability.”

Belarus: Krasnoselskstroymaterialy has announced that its US$7.8m refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant at its 1.6Mt/yr Krasnoselskstroymaterialy plant will be completed in September 2020. The plant is installed with equipment worth US$4.5m from Czech suppliers. The Ministry of Construction and Architecture has said that waste from the Grodno Recycling and Mechanical Sorting Plant will replace Belarusian peat and Russian coal as the cement fuel in the plant’s kilns, fulfilling Krasnoselskstroymaterialy’s goals of renewability and national self-reliance.

Ministry of Construction and Architecture energy conservation head Sergey Nikitin said, “The transition to RDF will create an opportunity to reduce the cost of cement production in the future, strengthen the financial and economic situation of the Krasnoselskstroymaterialy enterprise and create additional competitive advantages over producers operating on traditional fossil fuels.”