Displaying items by tag: Government

Ireland: The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has granted a licence to CRH subsidiary Irish Cement for the incineration of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), including tyres, plastics and animal tissues at its 1.0Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Mungret, County Limerick. The Limerick Leader has reported that it will be the second of Irish Cement’s two plants to transition from fossil fuels, after its Platin plant in Meath. The company has said that the intended upgrade is vital to the plant’s future and will create security for its 80 employees, in addition to generating 60 jobs throughout the course of its installation. 4500 people supported Limerick Against Pollution (LAP) in lobbying the EPA against granting its permission following the decision of the Irish planning appeals board An Bord Pleanála in favour of the installation. LAP has 28 days in which to appeal the EPA’s ruling.

The company’s 2009 incineration licence for its Limerick plant expired due to inactivity. It announced its renewed intention for RDF usage at the plant in December 2015.

Egypt: The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) of the Egyptian Ministry of Housing (MoH) has engaged BESIX and Oracom Construction for the establishment of a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) processing plant in Cairo. Mubasher has reported that Minister of Housing Assem El-Gazzar has stated that when operational the facility will provide 0.7Mt/yr fuel for cement plants.

Sweden: Geminor has been granted permission to operate freight by rail to and from its unit at Landskrona following a three-year application period. The plant processes more than 40,000t/yr of solid-recovered fuel (SRF), refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and waste wood

“We still have a long way to go in relation to transporting waste on rails in Europe,” said Country Manager Sweden at Geminor, Per Mernelius. He added that rail transport is still a ‘novelty’ in the waste processing industry with potential in the future.

Argentina: LafargeHoclim’s Malagueño plant has started processing municipal waste from Villa Carlos Paz since mid-June 2019. An agreement between the city government and the company was signed following the endorsement of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change of the Province, according to the La Voz newspaper. Non-recyclable dry solid urban waste is delivered from the city to a Geocycle Argentina unit before being used as an alternative fuel at the integrated cement plant.

Ethiopia: The Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Chemicals and Construction Inputs Industry Development Institute are working with cement producers to replace imported coal with biomas in a bid to lower carbon CO2 and reduce reliance on foreign currency. The institute has conducted a feasibility study, with the support of the Global Climate Fund and the European Union, studying using a weed, Prophecies Newfora, as potential biomass, according to the Reporter newspaper. Plants run by Dangote Cement and Habesha Cement factories took part in the study. The government is also encouraging cement producers to use locally mined coal until the biomass project becomes fully operational.

Honduras: Colombia’s Cementos Argos has launched a campaign to collect used tyres as part of a health and environmental initiative in Comayagua. Participants who supply used tyres will be rewarded with a fruit tree for each tyre returned, according to Periódico Digital. So far the 2019 campaign has seen a total of 2235 tyres collected. This is the fifth year that the cement producer has participated in the scheme.

Netherlands/UK: The RDF Industry Group has criticised a new tax proposal by the Dutch government on waste imports as part of its National Climate Agreement. The government wants to impose a tariff of Euro32/t on imported refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from the start of January 2020. It also wants to add a CO₂ tax of Euro30/t on industrial emitters from the start of 2021. The group says that, whilst it welcomes moves towards reducing CO₂ emissions, it believes the proposed Dutch taxes, in their current form, will be counterproductive in achieving this goal.

“RDF export forms a vital and flexible part of the UK’s waste management system, supporting over 6800 additional jobs in the UK, and saving over 700,000 tonnes CO₂ emissions annually. The Netherlands is the largest importer of UK waste, receiving 1.3Mt of RDF from the UK in 2018, powering good quality, efficient treatment facilities, many of which utilise heat offtake as well as electricity. The introduction of an import tax risks more waste going to landfill in the UK each year, disregarding the waste hierarchy, worsening the environmental impact, increasing costs and putting jobs at risk. Furthermore, given the large proportion of waste to Dutch incinerators that comes from the UK, there is also a risk of plant closures, and job losses in the Netherlands,” said Robert Corijn, chair of the RDF Industry Group.

The RDF Industry Group says it has raised its concerns with Dutch Parliamentary representatives.

Kuwait: Meshal Al-Rashed, the executive vice-chairman of Kuwait Cement Company, has asked that the government consider its request to use alternative fuels at its Shuaiba integrated plant, according to the Arab Times newspaper. It wants to co-process municipal waste at the unit.

Brazil: Votorantim Cimentos’ Salto de Pirapora integrated plant in São Paulo has recevied environmental clearance to burn municipal waste. The plant processed 17,900t of waste in 2018 during a testing phase. It has the capacity to process up to 65,000t/yr. From 2016 to 2019 it invested US$12m on upgrading the unit to accept alternative fuels. It now plans to spend US$43.5 over the next four years.

The cement producer is also running trial co-processing projects at its plants at Rio Branco do Sul in Paraná, Cuiabá in Mato Grosso, Sobral in Ceará and Brasíliain in the Distrito Federal. The company had a thermal substitution rate of around 30% in 2018 and it processed 0.85Mt of biomass, tyres and municipal waste.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has conducted media tours of its Lugait cement plant in Misamis Oriental to raise awareness of its import of processed engineered fuels (PEF) from Australia. In May 2019 containers from Australia arrived at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, but were reported as misdeclared by the Bureau of Customs, according to the Sun Star newspaper. However, Frederic Vallat, Holcim Philippines' vice-president for Alternative Fuels and Alternative raw material and head of Geocycle, said that the Tariff Commission had classified the shipment as PEF in early June 2019. The Environmental Management Bureau also notified the Bureau of Customs that it had no objection to imports of PEF.

The PEF shipment was described as, "a plastic based fluffy fuel with high calorific value consisting by weight, 75 – 85% flexible plastics, paper and natural and hydrocarbon based fibre, 7 – 15% hard plastics, 1 – 5% wood and < 1 – 5% non-combustible inert material in the form of solid flakes (range of particle sizes less than 50 mm), mixed colours with natural odour." It added that the PEF has a gross calorific value of 5700 - 7200kcal/kg, 15% ash content, 20% moisture, 1.5% sulphur and 1% chlorine. It is sourced from municipal wastes such as plastics, rubber, wood, paper, textiles, glass, metals, food materials, broken furniture, and other damaged or discarded articles.

Vallat said that at present, Holcim Philippines has stopped the import of PEF from Australia. They are now in dialogue with the Bureau of Customs over the issue. The company would like to import PEF locally but it was only able to source 7000t in 2018 and its plant needs up to 60,000t/yr.