China: Huaxin Cement says that it has disposed of 55t of medical waste from coronavirus-infected hospitals in Wuhan province at its 3.4Mt/yr Yangxin cement plant in Hubei province. Xinhuanet News has reported that the plant’s precalciner and rotary kiln have safely processed the batch, from its delivery in sealed trucks, through the combustion of the waste and its packaging, into cement.

Spain: Holcim España has reported that it has achieved a 10,000t reduction in CO₂ emissions at its 1.5Mt/yr integrated Carboneras plant in Almeria in 2019 by the 30% (60,000t) substitution of alternative fuels for coal throughout the year. Agencia Efa newspaper has reported that the switch was the result of a Euro0.88m upgrade to the kiln line as a part of LafargeHolcim’s Euro20m investment in measures to reduce its Spanish carbon footprint by 90,000t/yr. This also includes the introduction of plant-derived biomass to the Carboneras line by the end of 2020, at an estimated cost of Euro3.1m.

UK: Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) exports from England to decline by 13% to Europe fell by 13.4% year-on-year to 2.71Mt in 2019 from 3.09Mt in 2018. Waste recovery company Germinor reported the results of the survey from Footprint Services, which uses UK Environment Agency data. However, the report also said that exports of solid-recovered fuel (SRF) grew by 4%.

According to the Environment Agency data, the Netherlands remains the biggest importer of English waste-derived fuels (RDF and SRF), with 1.16Mt and 43% of the market in 2019. Sweden is the second biggest offtaker nation with 0.6Mt, followed by Germany at 0.4Mt and Denmark at 0.14Mt and Norway at 0.14Mt.

Geminor said that it led the list of waste-derived fuels exporters in 2019 with 0.31Mt in 2019. Biffa Waste Services was the second biggest exporter, followed by SUEZ UK and N&P Alternative Fuels.

Its UK country manager James Maiden said that 2019 was a challenging market for UK export, mostly due to issues surrounding Brexit, the Dutch temporary import restrictions and an increase in UK domestic capacity and facilities. He expected these conditions to continue into 2020, where the Dutch and Swedish tax announcements will impact on UK flows. Maiden said that the English export market is decreasing but that Geminor was balanced this with additional export volumes transported from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and internal UK flows.

Vietnam: The Vietnam National Cement Corporation (Vicem) and Denmark-based supplier FLSmidth have announced a cooperation agreement with the aim of radically reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from cement production and improving air quality. The cooperation will consist of Vicem implementing solutions pioneered by FLSmidth. FLSmidth said that a key focus of the cooperation will be Vicat’s use of ‘municipal and other waste streams as alternative fuel sources,’ with the aim of achieving 100% substitution using FLSmidth solutions, in accordance with FLSmidth’s ambition ‘to enable cement companies to operate with zero emissions by 2030.’