How do you view cement industry in India? Tell us more about Nuvoco group.
India is the second largest cement producing country in the world, next only to China. It produces about 7 per cent of the global production. India has a lot of potential for development in the infrastructure and construction sector and the cement sector is expected to largely benefit from it – both from Indian as well as foreign investors. The housing and real estate sector is the biggest demand driver of cement, accounting for about 65 per cent of the total consumption in India. The other major consumers of cement include public infrastructure at 20 per cent and industrial development at 15 per cent.
Nuvoco Vistas has been a part of the Indian construction landscape; through its cement business. We currently have six cement and close to 65 ready mix concrete plants in India. We have an established presence across all major cities and towns in India. We focused on Vision – Building a Safer, Smarter and Sustainable World. We are a reliable construction materials organisation that contributes to nation building by providing innovative and best-in-class products and services; from home building to infrastructure projects.
What are the major challenges the cement industry is facing to comply with the new environmental regulations in terms of particulate emission?
It has started some years ago that electrostatic precipitators had been replaced with fabric filters. In first instance it was RABH, later pulse jet bag houses became more common. People needed to understand the new technology to operate it properly. Reliability of the equipment becomes more important since emission standards were improved. If filter bags are failing they need to be replaced quickly, which may require a costly shutdown.
Especially in older bag filters, problems are increasing, which finally requires upgrades or a refurbishment. Using more robust filter material is one option, the alternative is a refurbishment/upgrade of the bag house structure.
P84 bags were installed (2+) years ago in your kiln-raw mill bag House. How do you review P84 bags performance compared to previous bags made from woven glass with PTFE membrane?
The P84 bags are working well and we did not experience any failing bags (almost no failing bags) or increased emissions since then. With woven glass, we had to replace some 100 bags during each stop. To comply with the new emission standards, we would have had to replace bags also between planned shutdowns. Now we are complying with the emission standards continuously and did not need any additional shutdown for maintenance of the bag house.
What are the main advantages brought by P84 bags to your manufacturing plant?
Since the bag house was running smoothly, we could focus more on the manufacturing process itself. In addition, team observed low DP and found energy saving where 100 per cent P84 bags installed.
Would you recommend the same P84 solution to other cement plants and for which reasons?
The investment in P84 is higher than in glass bags but it is less sensitive if conditions in the bag house are more severe. The root cause of problems with glass bags was different in our plants: either high dust load or high gas flow in relation to the bag house size. Also the condition of the supporting cages and the cleaning system contributed to the problems with membrane bags. The more robust P84 filter media could solve the problems in all of these cases.
(Communication by the management of the company)