Ireland: Irish Cement has deferred its plan to co-process tyres at its Limerick cement plant. Planning was lodged in late February 2016, according to the Irish Examiner. However a spokesman for Irish Cement said that the company had noted a few days previously that the planning application had not been made available for public inspection, due to a ‘procedural’ matter. They added that the company was working with the Limerick City and Country Council to resolve the issue.

Local Green Party candidate James Gaffney raised concerns about the plant upgrade in local press in mid-March 2016. He alleged that no public consultation was being carried out on the plant’s plans and that the application was being fast-tracked. Irish Cement denied these claims.

Irish Cement announced its plan to burn alternative fuels at its Limerick plant in December 2015.

UAE: Bee’ah has selected Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) to design, engineer, manufacture and install a major retrofit to the company’s Sharjah Material Recovery Facility. The facility is currently the largest in the Middle East, with the capacity to process more than 500,000t/yr of municipal solid waste (MSW). The retrofit, scheduled to be operational in early 2017, will upgrade capacity and automation to increase recovery and total diversion.

BHS will implement its latest technologies, including BHS Bag Breakers and Tri-Disc screens, Nihot air separators and NRT In-Flight Sorting brand optical sorters. BHS Tri-Disc screens will replace existing trommel screens to improve separation efficiency, decrease energy consumption and increase throughput. BHS screens will also boost the recovery of organic materials by 50% to 600t/day. The system’s throughput will expand from 68t/hour to more than 75t/hour.

Nihot Single Drum Separators will separate heavy items such as bulky metals and inert materials from lighter, high-value recoverables such as fibre and containers. To increase film recovery by 100%, NRT SpydIR optical sorters are paired with Nihot rotary air separators, creating the FiberPurefilm recovery system. The FiberPure will detect and eject film, pneumatically conveying it away from the remaining clean fibre stream. The NRT SpydIR optical sorter is also being employed to increase PET recovery by 15%. Magnets and an Eddy Current Separator will increase ferrous and non-ferrous recovery by 25%. The BHS Total Control controls package will integrate pre-existing and new equipment, empowering the entire system with advanced SCADA technology.

“BHS is selected according to stringent criteria, including technical know-how and manufacturing experience, to ensure their products, methodological knowledge and business strategies match Bee’ah’s high standards. This agreement reaffirms BHS’ exceptional reputation as high quality manufacturers and experienced integrators of whole system solutions,” said Daker El Rabaya, MD of Waste Processing, Treatment and Disposal Bee’ah.

Pakistan: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deferred the approval for setting up a tire-derived fuel (TDF) plant at the Bestway Cement plant in Farooqia. The decision has been left by the EPA to consent from the local community, according to local press.

EPA Director General Dr Bashir Khan said at a public meeting that unless local residents were satisfied, Bestway Cement would not be issued a no-objection certificate. Residents have cited dust, smoke, noise and water pollution as reasons to object against the proposed plant. Qamar Hayat, a local activist, said that locals would allow the EPA to approve the TDF plant when they were guaranteed pollution would be monitored and that health hazards and property losses would be checked.