Displaying items by tag: RDF
Dalmia cement commits itself to 100% RDF and biofuels by 2030
20 September 2019India: Dalmia Cement has revealed its commitment to the adoption of bamboo matter and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for 100% of its fuel needs by 2030 as part of its new ‘Future Today’ branding. The company’s plan also consists of a transition to renewable power by 2040 and a 0.5Mt/yr carbon capture and storage facility at its 4.0Mt/yr integrated Ariyalur cement plant in Tamil Nadu in 2022 at the latest. Mahendra Singh, managing director and CEO of Dalmia Cement, has expressed the hope that its product should become ‘the World’s greenest cement.’
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. A protest march will take place in the city of Limerick in October 2019.
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.
New RDF facility to power cement plants
12 September 2019Egypt: 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.
Thailand: Siam Cement has engaged the US-based Dow to conduct a study of types of waste plastic suitable for sorting. Dow’s chief executive officer (CEO) Jim Fitterling has estimated that locally sourced pre-used plastics can supply a commercial renewable feedstock operation at a rate of 0.2 – 0.3Mt/yr. The Bangkok Post has reported that the scale on which the two companies would seek to expand any operations depend on volumes of available waste. Nikkei has reported that Thailand generates 1.03Mt/yr of plastic, over 3% of which passes into the World’s oceans.
N+P Recycling views Chinese plastics ban as an opportunity
23 January 2018Netherlands/UK: N+P Recycling says that it views a Chinese import ban on plastics as an opportunity for its business. As the Dutch company offers a variety of waste derived fuels for various applications it is encouraging companies to split both fractions to get the optimal waste solutions for each individual quality. Lower calorific value (CV) products are better suited to waste incineration plants whilst higher CV products are typically used by cement, lime, steel and power plants.
Lower grade materials, typically within an 8 - 12GJ/t range, are supplied within many of N+P’s long-term supply contracts, to users within the UK and within Europe. There are also a number of possibilities for materials that are in-between the standard refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid-recovered fuel (SRF) qualities, or mid-CV range (12 - 16 GJ/t). For higher quality materials, N+P has a number of solutions all focused on the replacement of primary fossil fuels such as coal.
N+P Recycling produces a higher CV waste fuel product called Subcoal. It is currently building a Subcoal plant at Teesside in the UK with a production capacity of up to 0.22Mt/yr. It has started to source and contract non-recyclable waste streams such as materials recovery rejects, industrial residues and plastic residues for unit. It is expected to open in the third quarter of 2018.
UK: N+P has appointed Neville Roberts as Managing Director UK for N+P Alternative Fuels. He will be based in N+P’s new UK office in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. His appointment follows the expansion of N+P to supply refuse derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF) and its Subcoal product into UK domestic and European markets.
Roberts, a chemical engineer, has worked in the cement industry for over 35 years. He has worked for Rugby Cement, the Saudi Cement Company, RTZ Cement, Castle Cement, RMC and Cemex. Most recently he has been advising businesses, including N+P, on the use of alternative fuels. Roberts has specialised in production management and in particular the use of alternative fuels on cement kilns. Prior to leaving Cemex at the end of 2013 he was focussing heavily on alternative fuels in his role as Energy Business Development Director.
Wastecycle expands site and takes on 20% more staff
10 December 2015UK: Wastecycle's recycling facility in Colwick, Nottinghamshire is now one of the largest in the UK after an expansion of the site. By acquiring seven acres of property, which the company previously leased, and buying an additional four acres, Wastecycle has extended its site to nearly 20 acres.
"It's an exciting time for us because this expansion provides us with the platform we need to reach the next stage of growth as a company," said Financial Director Nathan Cole. "Over the long term, we plan to use the additional land to expand our extensive recycling and resource management activities. This will help us broaden the services we offer our customers while improving the quality and sustainability of the recycled products we manufacture."
The company has also completed an expansion of its main office to accommodate its growing workforce. After a 20% growth in staff 2015, it now employs almost 300 people across its Colwick site and its two sites in Leicestershire. "Ensuring our teams are comfortable in their working environments is very important to us because, not only does it increase productivity, but it also creates positive morale," said Cole. "Larger premises also provide the opportunity to open up new jobs, while improving the quality of service we can provide to customers."
Wastecycle separates 500,000t/yr of waste, including 18,000t/yr of recycling from 126,131 homes in the Nottingham City Council area. Some of the waste is turned into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for use at cement plants. It also sorts through the rubbish of thousands of businesses across Nottinghamshire, runs a skip hire service and operates a wallboard recycling facility, which it developed with British Gypsum.
In 2014, Wastecycle's turnover increased to Euro42.8m from Euro35.9m in 2013. In 2015, it won four awards, including a bronze environmental best practice accolade at the Green Apple Awards in November 2015. It was recognised for the success of its wallboard recycling scheme, which has prevented more than 30,000t/yr of wallboard from reaching landfill.
Egypt: According to Reuters, Arabian Cement Company has commissioned new alternative fuel processing machinery at its plant in Suez.
The state-of-the-art FLSmidth HOTDISCTM allows Arabian Cement's plant to rely completely on coal and alternative fuels to run its operations. Moreover, it enables the plant to operate its kilns using alternative fuel materials directly, without the need to pre-treat them. Arabian Cement now has a designed fuel mix of 70% coal and 30% alternative fuels. The alternative fuel that will be used will be a mixture of agricultural wastes, municipal sludge and refuse-derived fuels (RDF). Alternative fuel use is expected to result in around 60,000t/yr of reduced CO2 emissions.
New RDF plant comes online in Pasig, Manilla
25 June 2015Philippines: According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on 24 June 2015 the Pasig City government brought online what it described as, 'The country's largest facility for turning rubbish into fuel, capable of processing 600t/day of trash.'
The plant, which is Pasig City's joint project with the IPM Construction & Development Corp (IPM) and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), can process almost all of the city's daily waste production into refuse-derived fuel (RDF). Pasig City mayor Maribel Eusebio said that the plant would produce fuel pellets from the waste, which would then be supplied as an alternative fuel to cement plants. The RDF is majority-owned by Basic Environmental Systems & Technologies (BEST), a subsidiary of publicly-listed Minerales Industrias Corp, as well as France-based Lafarge Industrial Ecology International.
The plant mechanically segregates waste, selecting garbage with high thermal value that will be shredded, made into pellets and wrapped into bales. The plant is expected to convert 25 – 35% of the processed waste into alternative fuel for cement kilns. "The plant addresses serious concerns on increasing municipal solid waste and disposal," said Eusebio. "The RDF plant also complies with the waste diversion requirement of Republic Act No 9003 or Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. It also addresses climate change issues associated with how municipal wastes are managed."
The use of RDF in lieu of coal addresses the twin issues of solid waste management and climate change. "This is the largest RDF plant in the Philippines to date," said Isabelita P Mercado, president of IPM, which operates and manages the plant. "This is also a pioneering endeavour to save the environment by reducing our dependence on fossil fuel."
India: According to the Economic Times, the waste from city kitchens will soon be recycled into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at waste processing plants in Kalaburagi City, Karnataka. The RDF from the 10 upcoming waste processing plants in Kalaburagi will be given to cement companies for use as fuel and the biodegradable waste will be used as manure by farmers.
The joint initiative taken up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has had agreements with cement manufacturers such as ACC, Vicat Sagar and UltraTech in Kalaburagi.
"Plastic-like material is a good alternative for fossil fuel as it can replace up to 20% of fossil fuel in terms of energy," said KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya. The pact is yet to be signed and talks between the stakeholders is in the final stages. Transport costs for the RDF are estimated to be less than US$0.016/kg.
The idea to use RDF instead of fossil fuel in Kalaburagi cement plants was first conceived by Hasiru Dala, a Bengaluru-based non profit organisation working on waste management. It has provided 100t of combustible waste to Zuari Cements' plant in Andhra Pradesh in the past two months. Nalini Shekar, founder of Hasiru Dala, said that the material was not sold to the cement plant for a price, but Zuari paid for packaging and transportation. Households have been asked to segregate waste and hand it to BBMP garbage collectors to make the process easier.