Betting on cement’s future at IEEE Las Vegas

Nate Murphy, CIC vice chair and department manager at FLSmidth

Day 1 highlights

The first keynote speaker, Jamie Notter, grappled with the challenge of adopting the work culture to the new hybrid workplace with a virtual presentation, while also answering questions live from his home. Motivational speaker Chad Hymas followed by exploring why people need to adapt and work together while looking to reach their own full potential.

Moving on to environmental, energy and sustainability solutions, one way to reduce CO2 emissions is by lowering the clinker content of cement by producing calcined clays. FCT Combustion’s Adriano Greco and Pedro Ladeira outlined the use of the rotary kiln system or the flash calciner to manufacture calcined clays.

Energy solutions are another priority for a cement sector aspiring to reduce costs, and Tim Corrigan, Steve McKenery and Derek Longo of Convergent Energy + Power spoke on technical storage systems for cement production. Lithium-ion batteries have seen an 89 per cent price fall between 2010-21 and lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NCN) batteries offer electrical storage that provide 10-15 per cent of industrial energy. They can be fed by solar panels or wind turbines and can operate at off peak times, while charging during low energy periods.

In the panel discussion on evolving environmental and sustainability topics, Wendy Merz of Trinity Consultants explored the growing economic, social and corporate governance (ESG) demands. These matters are enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement and Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) net zero targets and there is a growing trend for companies to link their ESG work to the UN Development Goals of 2015. Ms Merz also spoke on the taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures that were updated in 2021, with physical risks and opportunities listed and metrics critical to final decision making. She explained that investors want disclosure and transparency while supply chains are also driving disclosure for carbon content in materials that are used for construction. The World Green Building Council targets 40 per cent less carbon in all new buildings by 2030 and net zero by 2050. Another driving force is the General Services Administration (GSA), which is targeting low carbon concrete and sustainable asphalt standards for Federal contractors.

Adam DeVoe of DeVoe Law firm reported that Colorado has aggressive CO2 reduction targets of 26 per cent by 2025 from the 2005 baseline, and a 90 per cent cut by 2050. This can only be met by scaling down production in the steel and cement sectors. GCC is a client of Mr DeVoe in Pueblo. The producer now has five-year audits to be listed as an Energy Intensive Trade-Exposed (EITE) company. Carbon emissions from EITEs are evaluated differently to other industries, because of carbon leakage concerns – where local cuts in production result in the transfer of carbon to neighbouring areas. CO2 reduction is a global issue and not a local one, which is why EITEs are required.

The welcome address delivered by Brett Lindsay, local conference chairman and

Salt River Materials’ Senior Director for Cement Operations and Environmental

Day 2 discussions

Mike Ireland, PCA chairman, started the second day outlining the state of the industry and the PCA’s programme ahead, based on its roadmap to carbon neutrality and government affairs. The US$1.2trn Infrastructure Act will include US$550bn new spending on transport programmes and provide demand for 47.56Mt of cement consumption over the life of the five-year programme. Meanwhile, the PCA’s advertising campaign ‘it takes big step to leave a small footprint’ is being launched in support of the cement sustainability and decarbonisation programme.

Ed Sullivan, PCA’s senior vice-president and chief economist, warned that any economic forecasts involve risks. However, his latest forecasts came with a set of elevated risks because the US has seen the FED introduce a 50-basis point hike in addition to a monthly US$95bn balance sheet reduction. Global events such as China’s recent COVID-19 lockdowns leading to supply chain concerns, and the Ukraine-Russia war and uncertainty as to how long it may last, have led to the PCA predicting 1.2 per cent cement consumption growth in the USA in 2022 and just 0.8 per cent growth in 2023.

The context of these negative factors needs to be considered. The US economy is strong, creating 6.6m jobs in 2021, 4.3m in 2022 and a forecast of 2.7m in 2024. Inflation is high and “will thieve consumer spending,” said Mr Sullivan. Consumers, however, can borrow with current debt at low levels.

COVID-19 is expected to drop off at the end of 2022, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Consumer confidence will rise and labour participation is growing. The war in Ukraine will have a small effect on US oil prices (12 per cent) and natural gas (17 per cent). Meanwhile, inflation is likely to run at 6.6 per cent in 2022, 4.3 per cent in 2023 and 2.5 per cent in 2024, before falling to 2.3 per cent in 2025. The Federal Reserve will tighten tapering whenever inflation is above two per cent, but the big evil will be supply chain disruption, according to Mr Sullivan.  

US GDP growth reached 5.7 per cent in 2021 and is expected to slow to 2.8 per cent in 2022 and 2.7 per cent in 2023. Most of the expansion in the building sector in 2020-21 came from residential building, but inflation and rate rises will hurt this growth going forward. The timing of the Infrastructure Act will be crucial as it will take time to take effect. Single housing may see a 1.6 per cent rise in 2022 but will fall by 7.1 per cent and 6.2 per cent in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The non-residential segment was hard hit by COVID-19 and banks are not willing to lend now for new non-residential building with so many vacant buildings available.

The Infrastructure Act will see states competing for contracts, paperwork will be slow and bidding and reviewing for contracts takes time. It is likely to be 2023 at the earliest that the first contracts will start to get underway. Public construction spending from the Infrastructure Act will start to come through in 2022-23 but most will come in 2024.

Delegates were also given an update on the US cement industry’s roadmap to carbon neutrality by Rick Bohan, PCA senior vice-president, sustainability. While carbon capture projects are being seen in New Braunfels, Texas, and Florence, Colorado, Mr Bohan quoted the National Carbon Capture Centre Wilsonville in Alabama, which reports: “Cement plants will double energy consumption when installing carbon capture technology.” But Mr Bohan asked: “Where is this energy coming from?”

The US cement sector will see various changes in the next few years. Currently, 44 US cement plants have announced Portland limestone cement being introduced to reduce OPC production. This will be a decisive change and in 10-20 years blended cements are expected to dominate in the US. The Infrastructure Act and lifecycle analysis of buildings will be a big win for the cement sector. The industry is moving away from environmental product declaration towards a more lifecycle, cradle to grave assessment. Society and investors are driving forces for lower CO2 emissions as well as water consumption. Through cement recarbonation, concrete is a carbon sink. While there is discrepancy over how much CO2 is recaptured the PCA is happy to accept 10 per cent, although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest as much as 50 per cent may be recaptured over the lifetime of the product. Concrete production will become ever more efficient through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in new areas, such as concrete mixture design, concluded Mr Bohan.

Alternative fuels (AFs) usage is increasing in the US and Brian Giese of Beumer stated that 70 per cent of US plants now use some form of AFs and that this share is growing. In 2019 the US had an AF substitution rate of 15 per cent so it has a long way to go to get to 50 per cent by 2050. Mr Giese outlined projects at Sulaymaniyah (Iraq), Retznei (Austria) and Denizli (Turkey) where Beumer had installed different solutions for AF handling.

Mr Bohan was back to fire questions at the round table for ‘Hydrogen: possibilities and potential in the cement industry.’ The panel included Rick Beuttel of Bloom Energy, Matt McMonagle of NovoHydrogen and Jim Petrecky of Ohmium. To set up a 100MW hydrogen power plant, it is estimated that an installation would need to have around 250MW of electrodes. It would also need a water supply and permitting that could take a year to set up. To produce green hydrogen from solar power it is likely that around 1000 acres of land would be required. Oxygen is a byproduct of the hydrogen flame and would benefit cement production, as the CO2 waste stream would be purer and cheaper to capture. Hydrogen is also safer than natural gas to transport, but competition for supply with other industries like petrochemicals, pulp and paper, aluminium and glass production also looking to move to hydrogen, will increase.

The supply infrastructure for hydrogen is unlikely to be fully developed until 2040-45 in the US and will be a phased development. Hydrogen in production will mean higher NOx levels and hydrogen leakage would be more damaging to the environment than CO2 emissions, the panel concluded.

The smart cement plant was considered by Joe Haney of Industrial Accessories Co (IAC). He looked at remote monitoring for cement plants of equipment that lacks visibility and is not tied into current systems. By adding data from sensors to the Cloud, plants will move from corrective maintenance to predictive maintenance. Mr Haney gave an example of the air pollution sector being revolutionised in this way. First, pulse jet technology was introduced, then the ePTFE membrane and then pleated filter bags. The fourth big step will be remote monitoring technology. The IoT platform will include connectivity of equipment with sensors, data collection, a Cloud gateway and data delivery to predict and improve performance. Big gains will be found in having differential pressure history for each bag and the move to automated recording of equipment’s performance. Similar smart technology has been used on a baghouse for a rock crusher to assess differential pressure loss which resulted in learning that 30,000 pulse cycles could be achieved before the bags were expected to fail.

A new era of PGNA online analysis was announced by Dr Thomas Atwell and Kyle Foletta of XRSciences, along with Mukesh Verma of Buzzi Unicem participating in the presentation. Dr Atwell founded the cross-belt analyser and revealed that there could still be a need for a further analyser after the raw mill to deal with hard to grind materials, additives such as fly ash and baghouse dust issues. This has led to the development of the Apex Airslide conveyor analyser (AACA) positioned after the raw mill which can work in conjunction with a cross belt analyser. The AACA has a 5m feeder control alert and monitors the lime saturation factor (LSF). The analyser can also be positioned before the kiln to analyse material from silo bins for blended feed control. XRSciences detailed different case studies to illustrate the flexibility of the AACA on operating temperatures of  52-54˚C (125-130˚F) after the raw mill on a preheater tower. A second example had an operating temperature of 71-85˚C (160-185˚F) for raw meal feeding with a high LSF and positioning on the eighth floor of a homogenisation tower.

Karsten Brink Floor, MD of FLO2R, introduced a new kiln inlet gas analyser solution. These instruments can have a return on Investment (ROI) of just two days as they can prevent kiln stops. Current methods are based on two types: an appendix probe and a plunger probe. However, high volatile fuels cause gases to condense on the coldest spot in the kiln and this leads to a build-up of material on the outside of the probe with high wear and scaling which impacts the probe’s performance. The new analyser has a special steel that has a slippery surface and the tip of the probe has a filter and air blasters to clean instead of a plunger. There are no rotating parts and two air blasters on the side of the probe. The probe slides in and out of the kiln on an eight-wheeled buggy, while a cut in the tip of the probe protects the tip from dust build-up.

Awards presentation

IEEE-IAS/PCA awards were presented to the following papers:
• First place – Drives Working Group: “Reaching Environmental & Social Governance (ESG) goals with medium voltage (MV) variable frequency drives (VFDs)” by Manish Verma and Doug Phares, TMIEC
• Second place: Drives Working Group: “VFDs on process fans – when are they a good or bad idea?” by Brian Cook and Kevin Grotheer, Ash Grove Cement Co
• Third place: General Practices Working Group: “Flexibility with a modular grinding plant-case study” by Caroline Woywadt and Jannik Schmalenberger, Gebr Pfeiffer.

Next events

IEEE-IAS/PCA will host its East Coast meeting on 20-21 October 2022 in Birmingham Alabama, USA. The 65th IEEE-IAS/PCA Technical Cement Conference will take place on 23-27 April 2023 in Dallas, Texas, USA.