Displaying items by tag: Government

US: The legislative body of Albany County, New York, has enacted a law ending the establishment of new waste burning facilities. The Times Union newspaper has named LafargeHolcim subsidiary Lafarge North America’s 2.0Mt/yr Ravena cement plant amongst facilities affected. The legislature came to its decision following public outcry after Lafarge North America announced its plans to renew its licence to burn up to 4.8Mt/yr of tyres in January 2019.

Legislator William Reinhardt said, “While most of the attention had been focused on the potential impacts of the law on facilities like Norlite and LaFarge, the real intended point of the legislation is longer term. We want clean air not only today but for the foreseeable future.”

Indonesia: Solusi Bangun, the Public Works and Housing Ministry, the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Danish International Development Agency, and the Central Javan and Cilacap administrations have inaugurated an 18,300t/yr-capacity refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in Cilacap in the province of Central Java. The Jakarta Post has reported that the US$6.29m plant, the first of its kind in Indonesia, will process 120t/day of municipal solid waste into RDF for cement plants.

The Indonesian government is exploring ways to increase the uptake of RDF production as a waste management alternative across the country and is aiming to open 12 waste-fired power plants of a total power of 234MW by 2022.

India: The government of Chhattisgarh has begun purchasing dung from farmers and street cleaners in order to sell as a fuel mix additive to cement producers in the state. The state has established a 500t/day waste processing plant in Raipur District at a cost of US$17m in order to prepare the dung for use in cement plants. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said, “The scheme has multiple objectives, namely income generation and environmental conservation.”

Israel: The Environmental Protection Ministry (EPM) has granted Nesher-Israel Cement Enterprises a licence to substitute more refuse-derived fuels (RDF) for petcoke than was previously permitted at its 5Mt/yr integrated Ramle, Central District cement plant. The Times of Israel newspaper has reported that the licence also allows for greater metal emissions. The company said, “As is customary in the global cement industry, the Nesher plant in Ramle uses raw materials and alternative fuels, thus achieving a number of environmental goals, including reducing landfill, minimising the use of natural resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”

China: Huaxin Cement has announced that it burned 2.7t of seized opiates in its fuel mix at its Diwei cement plant in Chongqing. Representatives of the Chongqing Anti-Drug Committee, Public Service Bureau, Eco-Environmental Bureau and Procuratorate were in attendance. Huaxin Cement reports that the dangerous substances have been “safely disposed of.” The producer said that this is the largest single volume of drugs to have been combusted in a cement kiln. The plant previously burnt 1.22Mt of illicit substances in 2018.

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.”

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.”

India: Clean Kerala Company has signed an agreement with ACC to collect of non-recyclable plastic waste from local authorities in Kerala. Initially, the waste processing company will supply 2000t from across the state, according to the Hindu newspaper. A few local governments have also made arrangements with cement producers to supply waste directly.

UK: Germany-based HeidelbergCement’s subsidiary Hanson Cement will be the subject of a study in the use of biomass and hydrogen fuels coordinated by the Mineral Products Association. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is funding the Euro3.81m study, the results of which it says will be shared across the cement industry. HeidelbergCement CEO Dominik von Achten said, "In addition to our activities in the field of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), this project is an important step towards realising our vision of carbon-neutral concrete by 2050.”

India: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has lobbied the government in its Pre-Budget Memorandum 2020-21 over customs duties. The body is suggesting a reduction on the customs duty on tyre chips for use as alternative fuel (AF) to 5% from 10%. There is currently no import tax on cement and duties of 5% and below on various clinker constituents.