Philippines: Geocycle Philippines has co-processed 20,000t of contaminated soil at Holcim Philippines’ Bulacan cement plant in 2018. The soil was taken from former petroleum depots in the Pandacan district that have been opened up for commercial and residential developments. In November 2014 the Philippine Supreme Court ordered the remediation of soil covering an area of 33 hectares, which had been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Three companies have worked on the remediation project. It is led by US consulting firm AECOM, which performs the analysis of the waste and manages compliance and permits. Charifer Builders, a local partner, is in charge of civil works and site management. Geocycle Philippines transports the waste from the site to the Bulacan plant for final treatment through pre- and co-processing. The teams reviewed a number of soil remediation solutions but Geocycle won the bid for multiple reasons, not only cost.

“Geocycle's solution was considered the best option for this project as the treatment process completely destroys the contaminants, and leaves no residual liabilities at the project site,” said Alfred A Lalu, Technical Director, Environment of AECOM Philippines Consultants.

Geocycle Philippines is expected to co-process nearly 20,000t of contaminated soil in the first quarter of 2019.

Uzbekistan: The government is preparing to increase the use of alternative fuels in the cement and lime industry. A draft decree intends shift local industry to meet global trends in energy consumption and away from natural has consumption, according to the Trend News Agency. The government intends to encourage the use of coal, wood briquettes and pallets, biogas and other fuels.

The Ministry of Energy, together with the Academy of Sciences and research institutes, is planning to develop energy efficiency levels for industrial gas boilers. Local gas suppliers Uzneftegazinspektsiya, Uzenergoinspektsiya and Uztransgaz will then stop supplying natural gas to non-compliant industrial users from the beginning of 2020.

UAE: Cement plants in Ras Al Khaimah are using camel dung as alternative fuel. Saif Al Ghais, director of the Environment Protection and Development Authority in Ras Al Khaimah, said that cement plants in the emirate are co-processing a mixture of camel waste, wood waste and refuse-derived fuel, according to the Khaleej Times newspaper. The emirate is also considering using cooking oil in its cement plants. The initiative is part of the country’s national recycling and sustainability strategy.

China: CNBM has entered into a joint venture with Conch Ventures to establish a business processing solid waste to support co-processing at its cement plants. The new company will process at least 3Mt/yr of solid waste.