Economy & Market

Cooler Market Heats Up!

Published

5 years ago

October 19, 2021

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Cement being a continuous industry, the pyro section that runs 24/7 is the process part which is a non-stop operation. Though the cooler appears to be fairly simple but the operational part is more difficult when the capacity of a plant goes up.

It is a common practice in the industry to enhance the capacity of the kiln after a certain period of time when the plant stabilises. The problem arises when the engineers try to augment the capacity of a cooler with that of enhanced capacity of a kiln. The job becomes even more difficult when the space is limited. However with the support from cooler suppliers and after the selection of a right consultant, the job can be done. Retrofitting of cooler is quite often undertaken at a number of plants. (Refer to the article by ERCOM Engineers in this feature) Few leading manufacturers of coolers are FLSmidth, IKN (Ingenieurbnro Knhlerbau Neustadt), CemProTec, Claudius Peters, KHD Humboldt Wedag, ThyssenKrupp Polysius AG and FONS Technology. Major differences lie in the manner in which material is conveyed over the grates, the mode of aeration and the solid-gas heat exchange, the type and presence of self-regulating valves for airflow and the hydraulic system for moving parts.

Jayant Saha, a consultant having a vast experience with coolers, says, "The clinker cooler becomes a major bottleneck to support capacity upgradation. Almost all capacity upgradation projects involve increment in the capacity of existing coolers. Even with some extent of compromise with clinker temperature increase at cooler outlet, extra grate area requirement comes out to approximately 50-60 per cent for upgradation in existing calciner kiln system. For upgradation of older SP plants, the cooler grate area increment goes to even 150 per cent. Grate area can be increased only if free area is available within the cooler itself or by extending cooler longitudinally or by both methods. In most of the cases, the existing layout limits the cooler expansion and thus limits the upgradation scope. It is always advisable to keep a provision in the layout for cooler expansion, by keeping a little longer horizontal length for clinker pan conveyor."

Saha further says that though there are many types of coolers for cooling the clinker, the state-of-the-art coolers are either grate coolers or cross bar coolers. As cooling is a heat-transmission process, cooling efficiency is greatly dependent on the temperature difference between the two media, i.e., air and clinker.

In the course of rapid development in coolers in recent years, new generations of grate coolers have come into the market. In fact, it is little difficult to keep a track of the current cooler generation. However, little improvements have been made with regards to cooler efficiency and the cooling principle. At the same time, the grate load has typically been increased from approximately 40 to 50 t/d clinker per m2, considering the same clinker temperature, though the widely accepted value is about 45.

However good choice you make to erect a good cooler, the way in which it is operated is equally important. Here a process engineer plays a very important role. Snow man, Red River and jamming are some of the problems faced in cooler operation. These are process-related issues for which a good process engineering knowledge is necessary. The raw meal design has its impact on cooler operation.

Cooler optimisation can be carried out by maintaining:
-Maximum possible clinker residence time in the cooler to achieve the best possible distribution of clinker and cooling air. The clinker retention time in the cooler is determined by the grate surface loading and clinker bed depth;
-Proper cooling air flow distribution;
-Proper tuned PID controller (grate speed vis-a-vis under grate pressure) plays an important role.

Suchismita of ERCOM says that the efficiency of the cooler depends on its ability to recover the heat from the clinker entering the cooler, and cooling the clinker. The cooler also fulfills the key role of transporting the clinker away from the kiln in a reliable manner.

Saha writes, the cooler also provides hot air to be used in waste heat recovery system (WHRS). The steam turbine-based waste heat recovery boilers (WHRB) are placed between the cooler and the de-dusting system. Depending on situations/requirements, various configurations are considered. If no modification is made to the cooler and the excess gas is ducted from the cooler exit to the WHRB, then the vent fan should have enough margins to take care of the pressure drop in the heat recovery boiler.

The upgradation of cooler is a purely an engineering job requiring correct inputs about the existing status and the expected results.

Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

4 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

admin

TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.