MechChem Africa January-February 2022

Pressure on cement, mining for sustainable production Energy-intensive industries such as cement manufacturing and mining face a tricky future in terms of environmental expectations, where investors will expect businesses to maintain their profitability under the weight of ever-intensifying regulations and best practices, argues Deon de Kock, FLSmidth President for sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia.

F or energy-intensive industries to succeed under environmental and regulatory constraints, they need to leverage not only productivity- enhancing solutions, but also technologies that reduce energy use, water consumption and carbon emissions. According to Deon de Kock, FLSmidth President for Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia, the drive towards sustainable productivity therefore needs to underpin every strategic decision in these sectors. “Whilemining is drivenby global commod- ity prices and trends, cement prices are de-

and infrastructure spending is strengthening. “In the Middle East there is a welcome recovery in infrastructure spending that is reviving cement demand,” he says. “Despite the installed capacity outweighing con- sumption, there is an expectation that more production capacity will be required in the not-too-distant future.” A key challenge for cement producers, however, is thehigh input cost of the currently dominant fossil fuels – demanding that they look for alternative fuel sources to power their plants. Rising coal prices have upped the pressure to practically implement changes towards 100% fuel substitution. “Regulations on carbon capture – while currently not too onerous – will have a con- siderable impact on profitability within just a few years,” he says. De Kock emphasises that the goods news lies in the exciting solutions that have been developed to respond to these challenges, and which continue to evolve in ways that benefit both the financial and environmental demands of the future. One of FLSmidth’s recent advances iswell demonstrated in a commercial clay calcina- tion project with a French cement producer to replace energy-intensive clinker. In what will beEurope’s first full-scale clay calcination installation, the plant’s carbon dioxide emis- sionswill be cut by16%. FLSmidth is installing its newflash calciner technology, aswell as an environmental control systemandalternative fuel storage, and expects final commissioning by the end of 2023. Accord i ng to Sr i dhar Shanmugha Sundaram, FLSmidth Vice President for Cement in Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and South Asia, the West African region is one area of Africawhere suitable clay for this process can be found – opening the door for application of the technology. “FLSmidthhasmadeaMissionZeropledge, committing the company to enable its cus- tomers to run cement production at zero emissions by the year 2030,” Shanmugha Sundaram says. “The substitution of a sig- nificant portion of the clinker in cement with activated clay can reduce the CO 2 emissions per tonne of cement produced by 40%.”

termined by local consumption patterns and regulations,” saysDeKock. “Theglobalmarket for cement has been tough for the past three to four years, with plenty of installed capac- ity in many areas but relatively low demand.” He notes that there are some signs of improvement in South Africa, heralded by government’s commitment to use only local cements in its infrastructure projects. There has also been a recent improvement in ce- ment demand as economies recover from the initial COVID-19 lockdowns and supply chain disruptions. In India, for instance, con- sumption driven by residential development

The use of automatic filter presses is seen as the sustainable approach to high volume dewatering.

An exciting development in the cement sector is FLSmidth’s new flash calciner technology.

18 ¦ MechChem Africa • January-February 2022