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– How to make your cement plant run as a competitive and sustainable business.

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Tomorrow matters …

Societies all over the world are growing and steadily becoming more economically developed. Millions are moving from poverty to middle class, requiring better living standards. Furthermore, urbanisation and industrialisation are driving the need for more housing and an ever-expanding infrastructure, increasing the demand for cement as an indispensable building material. Cement production is thus a solid investment.

Amidst this growth, however, raw material and energy resources are becoming increasingly scarce. And the need to address vital issues – such as environmental impacts, sustainability, social responsibilities and compliance with emissions regulations – is challenging traditional production philosophies.

Given the ever-increasing demand for cement, production needs to become more efficient, yet less energy and CO2-intensive, in order to obtain sustainable growth.

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At FLSmidth, we aim to help cement producers to create profitable, sustainable businesses. We don’t just focus on optimising plant efficiency and increasing production capacity; we work alongside your business to help you achieve great-er competitiveness by developing more sustainable business practices and implementing crucial productivity improvements.

Through this handbook, we aim to share our business approach with you, based on more than 130 years of cement production knowledge. We offer advice on how to minimise the use of resources, optimise output and maximise the return on assets – in essence, how to do more with less.

We are driven towards a common pursuit for good, proven and sustainable business – because tomorrow matters.

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The three impact areas of sustainable production

When working with cement producers around the world, we have identified three impact areas in which sustainable production can achieve the greatest competitive advantages.

Economic impact

Improving productivity results in important economic benefits, not only for the cement producer itself, but also for the region in which it operates.

Social impact

Developing employees through special training and health and safety initia-tives will not only attract the right minds and improve your operations; it will also have a positive impact on the local community.

Environmental impact

A major challenge for the global cement industry is how to balance the increasing demand for cement with the need to reduce emissions and energy consumption associated with cement production.

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Improving productivity results in important economic benefits, not only for the cement producer itself, but also for the community in which it operates. A well-operated cement plant provides compelling opportunities to contribute to the economy of the local region. Apart from the local employment and business op-portunities offered, there are tangible examples of how cement plants have generated significant national gross value through supply of domestic cement, profitable operations and purchase of goods and services.

The quality of the cement goes a long way towards determining its market price, with higher quality cement often equating to higher margins and increased mar-ket share. At the same time, achieving maximum profitability depends on para-meters such as increasing the performance of the equipment and the availability of installed capacity.

Cement production can be optimised in three different ways: overall equipment efficiency, cost of production, and producing with lower risk.

Key to achieving high-quality cement and optimal performance is the right com-bination of high-standard core equipment technology, process knowledge and repeatable operating excellence that preserve plant asset value. This allows the plant to be operated at the optimum point of production – where everything is in balance and the equipment keeps running.

Economic impactThe economic impact of productivity enhancement

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It is here the cement producer achieves sustained performance, the lowest energy usage, lowest heat consumption, optimal production and lowest cost.

Today’s cement projects must often adhere to these principles of sustainable de-velopment and reduced environmental impact in order to gain financial backing. Through years of helping customers plan, build and commission cement plants, FLSmidth has gained unique expertise in helping cement plant owners meet the funding requirements for socially responsible investments.

SOLUTIONS IN ACTION

We helped a well-established regional cement producer achieved a 10 per-

cent higher utilisation rate than the industry average, low gaseous and dust emissions, and 14.5 percent lower energy usage than the regional industry average.

All have contributed significantly towards higher profits, delivering value to its owner as well as society in general.

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Cement plants have a big impact on the community, with a lot of social respon-sibility resting on the shoulders of cement plant owners. Increasingly, they need to plan for the impact the plant will have, which involves planning for how plant operations will make a positive contribution.

Employee skills and knowhow are just as important to productivity as the cement plant equipment itself. But many regions, particularly rapidly growing economies, face a shortage of experienced and skilled workers. That’s why cement plants today need to focus on training and ensuring safety at work.

But there is no doubt that efforts in these areas have a broader positive impact. There are many examples of such efforts being a vital factor in minimising the rate of employee turnover, which ensures consistency in plant operations. For individual employees, training provides important skills development than can boost their professional potential and further their careers, which in turn im-proves their contribution to local society.

Ensuring the day-to-day safety of employees is a key requirement, and satisfacto-ry safety performance is necessary when assessing the social impact of a cement plant. Measures to improve safety can include implementing specific safety per-formance targets and procedures for hazard observation and reporting. Regular, ongoing safety training is paramount.

Social impactThe social impact of training and safety

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It is important plant workers have the opportunity to develop their professional and technical skills in all aspects of operation and maintenance. This can be done through comprehensive training programmes that help employees to develop im-portant skills and to develop insight into the complete cement production process that becomes the backbone of plants’ high utilisation rates. Combining theo-retical and practical content, the training programmes should help cement plants meet specific performance goals and effectively manage the social impact of their operations.

SOLUTIONS IN ACTION

With a low employee turnover rate of only 1.5 percent, a cement plant achieved a high level of employability and retained valuable competencies. This was largely thanks to targeted training and safety programmes offered to all employees. In addition to employees experiencing a knowledge jump of 35 to 65 percent and a significant increase in job satisfaction, the lost-time injury frequency rate was reduced from 3.9 to 0.9 in 2015.

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The most serious socio-economic costs of cement production are gaseous emis-sions and energy consumption. The major global challenge for cement producers is therefore balancing increasing demand for cement with reducing emissions and energy consumption associated with cement production.

Among the most damaging gaseous emissions are CO, SO2, NOx and CO2 as well as total suspended particulate matter (TSP). Today, cement production current-ly causes about five percent of anthropogenic global CO2 emissions. And with more population growth as well as modernisation and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures predicted, the resulting cement production is likely to increase dramatically for the foreseeable future.

The overall goal must be to improve cement production productivity while signifi-cantly reducing the negative environmental impact. In response to this challenge, the industry must continue to improve the cement manufacturing process as well as adopt the use of new technologies and materials.

Important technological advancements have been made in all areas of cement production that are mitigating negative environmental effects.For example, pyro processing is a conventional technological procedure that consumes most of 7the energy required by the cement industry. Yet the global installed pyro process technology has significantly less thermal efficiency in the lower thirties compared

Environmental impactThe environmental impact of reducing energy and emissions

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to best available technology (BAT) for pyro processing which offers around 58 percent thermal efficiency. So there is considerable opportunity for improvement by deploying state-of-the-art technologies in new cement plants and retrofitting energy efficiency equipment where economically viable.

Other advancements include fuel burning technologies that allow the efficient combustion of waste in cement kilns, such as tyres, wood, plastics and chemicals. Burning waste in cement plants reduces the need for waste incineration in general, thus reducing total emissions for society.

But thermal efficiency of a cement plant is not only defined by its original engi-neering design. It also depends on the efficiency at which the machinery is operated and maintained. Improving the full range of operations and maintenance procedures is therefore key to achieving maximum plant efficiency.

SOLUTIONS IN ACTION

Reflecting significant management focus on the environmental impact, we helped one cement plant successfully reduced its emissions of TSPs to less than 16 percent of the maximum allowable level in the region. At the same time, modern fabric filters helped the plant to increase its production capacity and to produce three times more cement than TSPs, which is unrivalled in the region.

If you are ready for a dialogue with us on how to ensure a sustainable cement production geared for the future you can e-mail us at tomorrow@flsmidth.com, so we can help you identify areas for productivity enhancements or matching solutions for your needs.

Are you ready for tomorrow?