Process

Frontiers of pyro processing

Published

8 years ago

July 4, 2016

admin

The cement industry today faces yet another challenge on emission norms. We explore some of the solutions which are being tried and those that have been tried in other parts of the world.

In the entire process of cement manufacture, pyro processing is the most critical process. It not only entails the conversion of heat into chemical energy but the efficiency of the process also decides the bottom line of a plant.

Pyro processing (from Greek +?-??++-? = fire) is a reaction in which materials are subjected to high temperatures (typically over 800 ?C) in order to bring about a chemical or physical change. It includes such terms as calcination, sintering or roasting etc.

In the current issue we are trying to focus on some of the technological advances on the backdrop of the changes which have been announced by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change in the recent past regarding the emissions from cement plants. The changes announced are in the larger interest of protecting the environment and to align the regulations with that of the developed world. The moot question now is how the industry can technologically face the challenge. To know more on the specific changes in the emission norms and how they compare with those in the other countries, refer to the article by CH Persson of Yara Environmental Technologies AB, Sweden.

We have been successful in getting a viewpoint from Jayant Saha who is having extensive experience in the role of a consultant. He describes that most of the emissions are in the form of particulate matters, CO2, SOx, NOx and sometime toxic matters containing mercury, other heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. Almost all chemical pollutants are generated in the pyro section. He has further gone into details on how NOx is formed (a chemical reaction of atmospheric nitrogen at a temperature greater than about 1,200 ?C by direct oxidation). Since the flame temperature in a cement rotary kiln is about 2,000 ?C, considerable amount of thermal NO is generated. Saha provides us the information on Primary NOx Reduction Measures and Secondary NOx Reduction Measures (SNCR).

We would draw the attention of our readers to the article from FLSmidth which describes the use of an advanced technique like Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in studying the flow pattern of a burner. FLSmidth has a burner called Duoflex which can be used for different kinds of fuels. We would like to remind our readers that today coal is not the only fuel used in the kilns but there are alternate fuels, agri-wastes and industrial wastes which are being tried as fuel. The kiln should be capable of handling different kinds of fuels. The trials with the burner were not taken with coal as a fuel but with natural gas and peat as fuels. It is interesting to note that the company took help of the CFD technique to understand the performance of the burner. We would urge our readers to read the complete article submitted by Arun Appadurai of FLSmidth. To know more on CFD, please refer to the information given separately in the cover story. CFD in the real sense is an advanced technique which is being used presently to simulate the real conditions at the design stage itself. The success rate of any experimentation can be high if CFD technique is used before investing in CAPEX.

The article by CH Persson of Yara Environmental Technologies AB, Sweden is quite exhaustive and covers all aspects of the system used in NOx reduction and various options available like SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) and SNCR (Selective Non Catalytic Reduction). Incidentally Yara has a very successful track record of serving the cement industry across the globe. One can find a comparison between SCR and SNCR systems in the article. The interesting part of the comparison is that it covers both the operating and capital cost.

Under the heading Technoloy, we have covered a case study on installation of new kiln line by IKN in Turkey. While designing an inline calciner, a low NOx duct was installed to ensure an efficient mixing of meal and fuel with the oxygen-rich tertiary air. The lower part of the calciner had a width of 4.35 sq m and the upper part had a diameter of 4.1 sq m leading to a swirl head to ensure generation of CO, which reduces a good portion of nitrogen oxides. The calciner burner is designed to burn any combination of pet coke or coal.

It is important to note that the project has been completed with performance guarantee.

Though technically it?s feasible to comply with the revised emission norms which you can see from what is covered in cover present issue, the job is not going to be easy; more particularly for older plants. However, given the capability of the Indian cement industry, it can take on the challenge.

Box Exploring CFD
CFD is the use of applied mathematics, physics and computational software to visualise how a gas or liquid flows – as well as how the gas or liquid affects objects as it flows past. CFD is based on the Navier-Stokes equations. These equations describe how the velocity, pressure, temperature, and density of a moving fluid are related.

CFD has been around since the early 20th century and many people are familiar with it as a tool for analysing air flow around cars and aircraft. As the cooling infrastructure of server rooms has increased in complexity, CFD has also become a useful tool in the data centre for analysing thermal properties and modelling air flow. Simply by changing variables, the administrator can visualise how cold air will flow through the given vessel or container under a number of different circumstances. CFD in the cement industry is a computer aided solution technique used to describe and simulate flow-related physical phenomena (e.g. fluid flow, heat transfer and combustion). Various cement, lime and power plant applications that can be analysed using CFD include:

Pre-heaters, Pre-calciners, kilns, coolers and boilers.

Flue gas cleaning systems such as electrostatic precipitators.
Bag filters.
Bypass systems.
NOX reduction systems (selective non-catalytic reduction – SNCR).
Heat recovery steam generators and related equipments like WHR.

Process

Price hikes, drop in input costs help cement industry to post positive margins: Care Ratings

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

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Region-wise,the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by thenorthern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13%of the capacity, respectively.

The cement industry is expected to post positive margins on decent price hikes over the months, falling raw material prices and marked drop in overall production costs, said an analysis of Care Ratings.

Wholesale and retail prices of cement have increased 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively, in the current financial year. As whole prices have remained elevated in most of the markets in the months of FY20, against the corresponding period of the previous year.

Similarly, electricity and fuel cost have declined 11.9% during 9M FY20 due to drop in crude oil prices. Logistics costs, the biggest cost for cement industry, has also dropped 7.7% (selling and distribution) as the Railways extended the benefit of exemption from busy season surcharge. Moreover, the cost of raw materials, too, declined 5.1% given the price of limestone had fallen 11.3% in the same aforementioned period, the analysis said.

According to Care Ratings, though the overall sales revenue has increased only 1.3%, against 16% growth in the year-ago period, the overall expenditure has declined 3.2% which has benefited the industry largely given the moderation in sales.

Even though FY20 has been subdued in terms of production and demand, the fall in cost of production has still supported the cement industry by clocking in positive margins, the rating agency said.

Cement demand is closely linked to the overall economic growth, particularly the housing and infrastructure sector. The cement sector will be seeing a sharp growth in volumes mainly due to increasing demand from affordable housing and other government infrastructure projects like roads, metros, airports, irrigation.

The government’s newly introduced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), with its target of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025, is a detailed road map focused on economic revival through infrastructure development.

The NIP covers a gamut of sectors; rural and urban infrastructure and entails investments of Rs.102 lakh crore to be undertaken by the central government, state governments and the private sector. Of the total projects of the NIP, 42% are under implementation while 19% are under development, 31% are at the conceptual stage and 8% are yet to be classified.

The sectors that will be of focus will be roads, railways, power (renewable and conventional), irrigation and urban infrastructure. These sectors together account for 79% of the proposed investments in six years to 2025. Given the government’s thrust on infrastructure creation, it is likely to benefit the cement industry going forward.

Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, aimed at providing affordable housing, will be a strong driver to lift cement demand. Prices have started correcting Q4 FY20 onwards due to revival in demand of the commodity, the agency said in its analysis.

Industry’s sales revenue has grown at a CAGR of 7.3% during FY15-19 but has grown only 1.3% in the current financial year. Tepid demand throughout the country in the first half of the year has led to the contraction of sales revenue. Fall in the total expenditure of cement firms had aided in improving the operating profit and net profit margins of the industry (OPM was 15.2 during 9M FY19 and NPM was 3.1 during 9M FY19). Interest coverage ratio, too, has improved on an overall basis (ICR was 3.3 during 9M FY19).

According to Cement Manufacturers Association, India accounts for over 8% of the overall global installed capacity. Region-wise, the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by the northern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13% of the capacity, respectively.

Installed capacity of domestic cement makers has increased at a CAGR of 4.9% during FY16-20. Manufacturers have been able to maintain a capacity utilisation rate above 65% in the past quinquennium. In the current financial year due to the prolonged rains in many parts of the country, the capacity utilisation rate has fallen from 70% during FY19 to 66% currently (YTD).

Source:moneycontrol.com

Process

Wonder Cement shows journey of cement with new campaign

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

admin

The campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV…

ETBrandEquity

Cement manufacturing company Wonder Cement, has announced the launch of a digital campaign ‘Har Raah Mein Wonder Hai’. The campaign has been designed specifically to run on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

#HarRaahMeinWonderHai is a one-minute video, designed and conceptualised by its digital media partner Triature Digital Marketing and Technologies Pvt Ltd. The entire journey of the cement brand from leaving the factory, going through various weather conditions and witnessing the beauty of nature and wonders through the way until it reaches the destination i.e., to the consumer is very intriguing and the brand has tried to showcase the same with the film.

Sanjay Joshi, executive director, Wonder Cement, said, "Cement as a product poses a unique marketing challenge. Most consumers will build their homes once and therefore buy cement once in a lifetime. It is critical for a cement company to connect with their consumers emotionally. As a part of our communication strategy, it is our endeavor to reach out to a large audience of this country through digital. Wonder Cement always a pioneer in digital, with the launch of our IGTV campaign #HarRahMeinWonderHai, is the first brand in the cement category to venture into this space. Through this campaign, we have captured the emotional journey of a cement bag through its own perspective and depicted what it takes to lay the foundation of one’s dreams and turn them into reality."

The story begins with a family performing the bhoomi poojan of their new plot. It is the place where they are investing their life-long earnings; and planning to build a dream house for the family and children. The family believes in the tradition of having a ‘perfect shuruaat’ (perfect beginning) for their future dream house. The video later highlights the process of construction and in sequence it is emphasising the value of ‘Perfect Shuruaat’ through the eyes of a cement bag.

Tarun Singh Chauhan, management advisor and brand consultant, Wonder Cement, said, "Our objective with this campaign was to show that the cement produced at the Wonder Cement plant speaks for itself, its quality, trust and most of all perfection. The only way this was possible was to take the perspective of a cement bag and showing its journey of perfection from beginning till the end."

According to the company, the campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV. No other brand in this category has created content specific to the platform.

Process

In spite of company’s optimism, demand weakness in cement is seen in the 4% y-o-y drop in sales volume. (Reuters)

Published

3 years ago

October 21, 2021

admin

Cost cuts and better realizations save? the ?day ?for ?UltraTech Cement, Updated: 27 Jan 2020, Vatsala Kamat from Live Mint

Lower cost of energy and logistics helped Ebitda per tonne rise by about 29% in Q3
Premiumization of acquired brands, synergistic?operations hold promise for future profit growth Topics

UltraTech Cement
India’s largest cement producer UltraTech Cement Ltd turned out a bittersweet show in the December quarter. A sharp drop in fuel costs and higher realizations helped drive profit growth. But the inherent demand weakness was evident in the sales volumes drop during the quarter.

Better realizations during the December quarter, in spite of the 4% year-on-year volume decline, minimized the pain. Net stand-alone revenue fell by 2.6% to ?9,981.8 crore.

But as pointed out earlier, lower costs on most fronts helped profitability. The chart alongside shows the sharp drop in energy costs led by lower petcoke prices, lower fuel consumption and higher use of green power. Logistics costs, too, fell due to lower railway freight charges and synergies from the acquired assets. These savings helped offset the increase in raw material costs.

The upshot: Q3 Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of about ?990 per tonne was 29% higher from a year ago. The jump in profit on a per tonne basis was more or less along expected lines, given the increase in realizations. "Besides, the reduction in net debt by about ?2,000 crore is a key positive," said Binod Modi, analyst at Reliance Securities Ltd.

Graphic by Santosh Sharma/Mint
What also impressed analysts is the nimble-footed integration of the recently merged cement assets of Nathdwara and Century, which was a concern on the Street.

Kunal Shah, analyst (institutional equities) at Yes Securities (India) Ltd, said: "The company has proved its ability of asset integration. Century’s cement assets were ramped up to 79% capacity utilization in December, even as they operated Nathdwara generating an Ebitda of ?1,500 per tonne."

Looks like the demand weakness mirrored in weak sales during the quarter was masked by the deft integration and synergies derived from these acquired assets. This drove UltraTech’s stock up by 2.6% to ?4,643 after the Q3 results were declared on Friday.

Brand transition from Century to UltraTech, which is 55% complete, is likely to touch 80% by September 2020. A report by Jefferies India Pvt. Ltd highlights that the Ebitda per tonne for premium brands is about ?5-10 higher per bag than the average (A cement bag weighs 50kg). Of course, with competition increasing in the arena, it remains to be seen how brand premiumization in the cement industry will pan out. UltraTech Cement scores well among peers here.

However, there are road bumps ahead for the cement sector and for UltraTech. Falling gross domestic product growth, fiscal slippages and lower budgetary allocation to infrastructure sector are making industry houses jittery on growth. Although UltraTech’s management is confident that cement demand is looking up, sustainability and pricing power remains a worry for the near term.