Global CemFuels News

India: The Pollution Control Board of Andhra Pradesh (APPCB) has co-ordinated a brainstorming session on ‘Co-processing of Municipal Solid Waste and Plastic in Cement Industries’ in which cement producers, the Swachh Andhra Corporation, the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and others groups participated. The APPCB is trying to encourage the use of alternative fuels in the cement industry by overcoming funding issues, according to the Hindu newspaper. APPCB chairman BSS Prasad said that the board wants to help local government bodies connect with the cement industry.

UK: Andusia has exported its first consignment of solid recovered fuel (SRF) to an unnamed cement producer operating a Mediterranean plant. The deal is the company’s first SRF contract.

“As Andusia diversifies into other forms of recovered fuels exported to Europe and also within the UK, we hope this further demonstrates how knowledgeable and diverse our business and the Andusia team is,” said Mark Terrell, director at Andusia.

Ireland: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) says it requires more information on Irish Cement’s plans to use alternative fuels and raw materials at its Limerick plant before it can grant it a licence. The request has delayed the decision by the environmental body on whether the cement producer can co-process alternative fuels at the site.

It has asked the cement producer to provide more information on: waste acceptance capacity; raw materials, intermediates, products used or generated on-site; best available technology; emissions to atmosphere; human health; hydrology and hydrogeology; appropriate assessment; accidents and disasters; and baseline reports. The EPA added that before it could conduct a licence review it must out a ‘thorough’ environmental assessment of the proposals in the review application, including an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and an appropriate assessment. The EPA also said that it had received over 3500 individual public submissions on the application by Irish Cement.

Irish Cement wants to implement a Euro10m upgrade to its plant. This will include the development of land to facilitate on site handling, storage and introduction of alternative fuels with conveyor, storage tanks, uploading station, handling building, cooling tower and associated ancillary work. It first announced plans to co-process alternative fuels at the plant in late 2015.

India: A group of cement producers in the Kalaburagi district have stopped using refuse-derived fuel (RDF) sourced from Bengaluru on economic grounds after a six-month trial period. Although the manufacturers do not pay for the RDF they say that it costs more than coal once transportation costs are taken into account, according to the Hindu newspaper. RDF from the city is transported over 500km to the plants.

In a meeting with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palik (BBMP), an administrative city council body, one producer alleged that the RDF supplied by the city was not meeting pre-determined agreed moisture content, presentation in compressed bales and that the local government had promised to pay for the transport costs. An official from the BBMP argued back that the body was not prepared to pay transport costs for RDF and that coal costs US$82/t compared to the RDF transport cost of US$34/t. However, the BBMP has agreed to supply RDF in compressed bales and producers have welcome this concession as it will reduce logistics costs.

Canada: The Environment Department has approved plans by the Lafarge Brookfield cement plant to burn tyres in a kiln in a one-year pilot project. The company will be obliged to conduct monitor air quality, groundwater and surface water in the area during the trial, according to the Canadian Press newspaper. Industrial approvals are normally issued for 10 years but the shorter period will allow the authorities to scrutinise the situation more closely. Lafarge Canada plans to burn up to 5200t/yr in the pilot.

The decision to allow the pilot to go ahead follows local criticism of the project. A previous attempt by the cement producer to co-process tyres at the plant was blocked in 2007. The provincial Supreme Court dismissed a residents' group's bid for a judicial review of the pilot in March 2018.