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.

Czech Republic: The Global CemFuels Awards 2016 has announced winners in six categories. The Suez Environnement solid recovered fuel facility at Malpas Farm, Rugby, which supplies the Cemex Rugby cement plant, won Outstanding Alternative Fuels (AF) project. LafargeHolcim won AF-user company of the year. N+P, Netherlands received the award for AF-supplier company of the year for the second consecutive year. Linder-Recyclingtech won the award for innovative technology for AF use. Frederico Contente, Masias Recycling was awarded project manager of the year. Jan Theulen, HeidelbergCement was awarded CemFuels Personality of the Year.

The Global CemFuels Awards 2016 took place as part of the Global CemFuels Conference and Exhibition. The awards are nominated and voted for across the alternative fuels industry. The specialised annual alternative fuels conference for the cement and lime industries took place on 22 – 23 February 2016 in Prague.

Featured image: Jan Theulen, HeidelbergCement (right) and Robert McCaffrey, Global Cement (left)

South Africa: Interwaste has launched the first refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant in South Africa, according to local media. It is expected to take a minimum feedstock of 12,000t/yr. The production line was imported in 2015 and it is based at the company’s Germiston depot. It is the first of four intended RDF lines. It is currently producing a solid recovered fuel to European specified standards.

“Interwaste continually invests in innovative solutions that have the most environmentally sound waste management opportunity at its core, solutions that make us market leaders and place us in a favourable position within the competitive waste management environment.,” said Allan Willcocks, CEO at Interwaste.

Poland: Gorazdze Cement intends to cut costs partly by increasing its usage of alternative fuels, according to its CEO Ernest Jelito. As the Polish cement producer is currently operating at a 60 – 70% capacity utilisation rate it has no plans to increase its capacity. Gorazdze Cement has a thermal substitution rate of around 50% at present and it intends to raise this to 70 – 80%.