Cement News tagged under: Tech Forum
Electric kilns power revolution10 April 2024, Published under Cement NewsWith the global cement industry on the road to net zero cement production, new technologies for a decarbonised pyroprocessing line have been developed. These include electric kilns, which offer a fossil fuel-free alternative to the traditional kiln fired with carbon-rich fuels. Coolbrook explains the benefits of this new technology. By Dr Thomas Ouni, Coolbrook, Finland Coolbrook's RotoDynamic Heater has the potential of generating temperatures of up to 1700°C solely usin... |
Electrical heating technologies15 January 2024, Published under Cement NewsAs the electrification of the cement kiln process generates an increasing amount of interest, this month’s Technical Forum looks at the potential technology options that could be deployed in the push towards decarbonisation. Dr Clark asks which electrification technologies could be deployed to electrify the cement kiln process based on Cementa and Vattenfall of Sweden’s “CemZero” prefeasibility study, published in 2018 Electrification of the cement kiln process continues to a... |
Net-zero business models04 December 2023, Published under Cement NewsCemtech Europe 2023, held earlier this year in Istanbul, Turkey, provided a wealth of interesting presentations on a range of topics, including net-zero business models for cement companies. This month Dr Clark takes a closer look at such models and what they mean for the cement industry. At Cemtech Europe 2023, a presentation by Fabian Apel (McKinsey & Co) on cement industry business models for the net-zero transition provided Dr Clark food for thought (© Tradeship Publicati... |
Profit margins under pressure20 November 2023, Published under Cement NewsIn 2022 cement company profit margins came under pressure, particularly when compared with the previous year. Dr Michael Clark takes a closer look at cement company profit margins in 2022 and 2023, the factors that affect them and how to protect profits in a changing world. By Dr Michael Clark, UK. Figure 1: comparison of gross margins in 2021 vs 2022 (©Dr Michael Clark) When compared to cement company profits in 2021, the profits in 2022 came under pressure. Whitehopleman’s... |
An easy way to reduce thermal carbon emissions03 October 2022, Published under Cement NewsTo reach its net zero target the cement industry will have to accelerate the roll-out of its decarbonisation initiatives, including the thermal efficiency of kilns. The replacement of long wet dry kilns with modern dry- process kilns is key in decarbonising the Chinese cement industry There is a reasonable consensus that the average thermal energy consumption of cement kilns around the world is ~3500MJ/t of clinker produced. Jim O’Brien of Jim O’Brien CSR Consulting harvests ... |
The oxycombustion way forward17 May 2022, Published under Cement NewsDespite an array of carbon reducing technologies currently applied in cement plants around the world, it is becoming increasingly clear in the industry that there is a need for further-reaching approaches such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage to be part of the sector’s drive to reduce CO 2 emissions from its plants. In this article, Dr Clark discusses oxycombustion, one of the ways to capture CO 2 from cement plants. Figure 1: first-generation oxyfuel technology We r... |
Dangote: powerhouse of Africa and Nigeria08 March 2022, Published under Cement NewsThrough the use of financial ratio analysis, this month’s Technical Forum examines how Dangote Cement – the powerhouse of Africa and Nigeria – has managed to achieve a strong and sustained financial performance. Dr Clark looks at why Dangote Cement is right at the top of the range of performance for cement companies The benchmarking of a cement factory and cement company performance remains a major part of Whitehopleman and Dr Clark’s work. When such benchmarking exercises are b... |
CO2 utilisation in concrete15 February 2022, Published under Cement NewsRecent ICR articles have given plenty of attention to the theme of decarbonisation of cement manufacture. One way of using this CO 2 is to “lock” it into concrete as the world requires increasing amounts of this building material. Concrete use has spiralled upwards as the global population has increased Back in April 2021 the Technical Forum took the theme of the imperative and the challenge of decarbonising cement manufacture. We can read various estimates of the proportion of... |
Reducing methane emissions24 January 2022, Published under Cement NewsAs the cement industry prepares to meet its sustainability objectives, this month’s Technical Forum focusses on the potential of methane as an alternative to coal in firing kilns. More than 70 per cent of kilns are still fired with coal or petcoke whereas only 10 per cent are currently using natural gas. If 10 per cent of the world’s cement kilns could be switched from coal to natural gas, then 1.16Gt of CO 2 would be prevented between 2020-50 News in the first weeks of Nove... |
Limestone specifications23 November 2021, Published under Cement NewsWhen asked to review the suitability of limestone deposits for cement manufacture, Dr Michael Clark makes a range of important assessments such as what other materials would need to be added to produce a clinker with the required mineral content. The lime content of a limestone deposit is one assessment that needs to be made during an evaluation This author has been asked twice during the pandemic to review data on limestone deposits and their suitability for cement manufacture.... |