Spain: Cementos Alfa, part of Cementos Portland Valderrivas Group, has applied to its local environmental government body to increase its biomass co-processing rate. At present the cement plant in Cantabria is allowed to use up to 150t/day, according to the El Diario Montañés newspaper. The unit also spent Euro9m on energy savings upgrades to the main burner in 2018.

The plant produced around 0.5Mt/yr of cement in 2018 with a production capacity of 1.1Mt/yr. Production is expected to rise to 0.6Mt/yr in 2019.

UK: Hanson’s Ribblesdale cement plant plans to upgrade its automatic feed system to increase its usage of solid recovered fuel (SRF). It is part of a three-phase fuel strategy to reduce the amount of coal the unit uses. The subsidiary of Germany’s HeidelbergCement has been using SRF since 2011.

“Successful trials have also been carried out to burn waste paper residues from motor oil filters in the kilns and use of this as an additional alternative fuel will start in 2020,” said Simon Moorhouse, Hanson Cement’s operations manager.

Iraq: Germany’s Eggersmann Group has sold a drying system for municipal solid waste (MSW) to Faruk Group for use in a mechanical-biological waste treatment plant (MBT) being built at Suleymaniyah. 1040t/day of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) will be produced at the plant from MSW and commercial waste. Faruk Group intends to use the RDF at its cement plant.

The MBT plant includes 22 drying lanes with aeration and membrane cover. It is being built on a 40,000m² plot of land. Each lane has a capacity of 2600m³ MSW and will be fitted with aeration and process control. The project also includes a sanitary landfill with leachate collection for the processing residues.

Faruk Group assigned Eggersmann Group with the planning, supply and commissioning of the biological drying process phase. Eggersmann will use its Backhus Con system using a combination of the membrane-covered Convaero process and the self-propelled Backhus turner.

Eggersmann says that the Backhus Con 100 is the world's largest turner with an effective operation width of 10m and a total width of 14.5m. It is fitted with tracks to run along the outside of the lane walls, while the waste will be turned within the lanes. In addition, the Backhus Con is equipped with two membrane cover winders to simultaneously wind and unwind membrane covers during turning. Since the system is effectively closed during turning, this method is suitable for sites where emissions are a critical issue. A further advantage of the system is the short processing time. Even materials with a high moisture level and high density can be efficiently composted or dried.

At the front end of the treatment process at the Suleymaniyah MBT, an Eggersmann single-shaft Teuton ZS 55 shredder will allow continuous shredding and a uniform discharge of shredded waste to the conveyor systems towards the drying area. One Teuton ZS 55 in two-shift operation is sufficient to cover the site’s daily throughput.

The plant is designed for a throughput capacity of 380,000tyr. The plant will be in operation seven days a week with two operation shifts and one cleaning and maintenance shift per day.

The ground works at Suleymaniyah are being built and installation of aeration system for the drying lanes is scheduled to begin in May 2019. The delivery of the other components and machines is planned to start in June 2019 and the warm commissioning is expected to start at the end of 2019.

Germany: The Siebtechnik and Tema brands have merged as Siebtechnik Tema from the start of 2019. The aim of the merger is to create a common brand and to improve the subsidiaries sales and service structure with production sites and representative offices in Germany, the Netherlands, the US, the UK, France, Spain, China and Australia. Siebtechnik Tema manufactures equipment for processing mineral bulk solids including producing equipment for the recycling sector. It also makes solid-liquid separation equipment for the chemical and food industries.