The 15th NCB International Seminar on Cement, Concrete and Building Materials held between 5-8 December 2017 at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, India, was attended by over 1000 delegates. The technical programme featured 200 papers delivered on a diverse range of topics relevant to the industry, whilst an exhibition consisting of 90 companies highlighted the latest manufacturing technology.

Some 90 companies participated in the NCB’s exhibition at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, India

The opening session of the 15th NCB International Seminar saw senior industry figures review the Indian cement sector. As the second-largest cement-producing country in the world, the Indian cement industry has a hopeful outlook for the coming year. An upcoming boom in housing and other infrastructure projects is expected to drive capacity increases even further. The inauguration panel acknowledged that while the country’s capacity is approximately only 15-16 per cent of China’s capacity, they expect to close the gap in the coming years. 

However, the industry is facing numerous challenges and last year saw the industry impacted by India’s demonetisation and the regional petcoke ban. Between November 2016-March 2017, cement sales volumes fell by nine per cent following the demonetisation process of late-2016. In his address on cement industry perspectives during the inauguration ceremony, Ambuja Cement Managing Director and CEO, Ajay Kapur, recognised this and referred to demonetisation as only a temporary disruption within the sector. 

Although since lifted, the regional petcoke ban was a focus of discussion throughout the NCB seminar. The essential nature of petcoke to the Indian cement industry, where it is the primary fuel for many producers, was reflected through the number of presentations alluding to its use by organisations such as the NCB and Ambuja Cement.

Alternative fuels

Two technical sessions and a panel discussion were held on the topic of alternative fuels and raw materials, indicating a high level of interest in the subject as the country strives to meet its targets.
The inauguration panel stated that the sector hopes to significantly increase India’s alternative fuel substitution rate from the current level of four per cent. It also highlighted that the cement  industry can provide a solution to India’s waste management issues.

Philippe Fonta, managing director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), moderated a panel discussion on low-carbon transitions for the cement sector. Mr Fonta identified the importance of collaboration in the efforts to reduce carbon emissions and stated that an updated carbon roadmap will be published in the first quarter of 2018.

Panel member Berthold Kren, head of Geocycle India, the waste management arm of LafargeHolcim, commented on how the company has invested over INR4bn over the last few years to develop waste processing. In 2018 Geocycle will manage 1Mt of waste for co-processing in India.

Dalmia Cement presented several papers examining alternative fuels, particularly the use of municipal solid waste (MSW) and tannery sludge in cement plants. The company noted that the total installed cement capacity of India is expected to rise to 600Mta, thereby increasing the energy demand to approximately 58Mta of coal. In this scenario the 65Mta of MSW produced in India has significant potential to become a reliable alternative fuel. However, Dalmia noted that this solution is uneconomical at present and for this to change waste needs to be free of charge to the cement producer.

In a special technical session, Dr Kåre Helge Karstensen, SINTEF (Norway), presented a talk on the formation and control of dioxins and furans (PCDD/PCDFs) in dry-process preheater/precalciner kilns while co-processing wastes. To avoid emissions of PCDD/PCDFs, he highlighted the importance of smooth process conditions with stable waste fuel feeding to ensure sufficient temperature, residence time, mixing conditions and oxygen control.

Raw materials

Indian limestone reserves are expected to last another 40 years, after that the natural stocks will be depleted. Perhaps as a result of this, there was an increased focus on alternative raw materials (ARMs) within the presentation programme. ARMs such as fly ash and waste-derived materials  are being used to reach the country’s target of increasing blended material within cement to 80 from 72 per cent. As part of this process, the industry is taking hazardous waste from other industrial sectors such as paint and power producers.

Beumer unveiled the new fillpac® R,

amongst other bagging technology

In response to the depleting levels and quality of limestone available in India, FLSmidth (India) and ST Equipment & Technology (India) have together developed an innovative separation system for the dry beneficiation of fly ash and limestone. The system uses a tribo-electrostatic separation process to remove silica from low-grade limestone, which can then become utilised as a high-grade material in the production of cement.

Performance optimisation

Sachin Raja, Beumer (India), outlined how the company is using the Internet of Things (IoT) concept to increase the efficiency of the bagging and packing process. Typically, 30 per cent of cement costs are attributed to logistics and packing. However, digitalising the process leads to an efficiency growth of up to 30 per cent.

Holtec Consulting (India) unveiled its ‘Online Plant Analytics’ (OPA) system, designed to monitor and improve plant operation. The OPA system records a series of performance indicators and uploads them to be analysed by a team of global experts. Holtec also presented a case study where, through the application of its system, the company helped raise the mill output of a plant by approximately 15tph.
The session on productivity enhancement provided a number of practical papers with examples of best practice manufacturing techniques. Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd, for example, described how the company raised the capacity of its Kadapa plant (Andhra Pradesh) from 4,500tpd to 6,500tpd, with no capital investment, through systematic study of the plant’s raw materials leading to minor modifications of the raw meal.

Exhibition

Alongside the extensive technical programme, a large exhibition featuring 90 international and domestic companies was held at the centre. Amongst the exhibitors were Beumer India Pvt Ltd and FLSmidth, both featuring models of their latest manufacturing technologies.

Next event

A biennial event, the 16th NCB International Seminar on Cement, Concrete and Building Materials will be held in 2019. 

This article was first published in International Cement Review in February 2018.