Concrete

Milestone Trends in Indian Cement Industry

Published

3 years ago

March 15, 2023

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KHD charts its green footprints on the road to low carbon emissions.

India is the second largest cement producer in the world and accounted for over 8 per cent of the global installed capacity. Of the total capacity, 98 per cent lies with the private sector and the rest with the public sector. The top 20 companies account for around 70 per cent of the total cement production in India. Having the high quantity and quality of limestone deposits throughout the country, the cement industry has promised huge potential for growth since 1914. In the past five years, the industry has witnessed a CAGR of approximately 5.5 per cent driven by demands in roads, urban infrastructure and commercial real estate. The cement sector has received good investments and support from the Government in the recent past.
In this growing trend, the industry has witnessed ups and downs, technological changes, import-export crisis, increased fuel prices, environment load, alternate solutions, mergers and acquisitions, market strategies, fierce competition and above all sustainability. Various trends were witnessed, which called for solutions that have a global approach particularly low carbon emissions. Due to the incessant changing technology and requirements of cement industry, KHD being a responsible partner is steadily delivering and contributing its best for more than 160 years presenting a sterling example in fulfilling the responsibility as a prime technology supplier. Continual development based on the need from the industry, guided the technology providers to think ahead and gear up to provide the cement industry with the latest state of art technology integrating the innovations, which are leading to the sustainability of the plants in long run. With the depleting resources, concerns for growing greenhouse emissions and sustainable practices, KHD with its long vision approach worked out that for the growth to be consistent the principle, which will form the basis should be derived on the sustainable life cycle. The coming sections will discuss the number of trends witnessed by industry in the past decades.
Trends for an efficient pyroprocessing system: In the past few decades, the basic nature of pyroprocessing has not changed. A little that had changed happened about twenty or thirty years ago, which was the transition from wet to semi-dry and semi-dry to dry processes. Post that, most of the processes have become more and more efficient, but have not changed fundamentally. It›s the continuous evolution of technologies from good to better to best like Preheaters Development in terms of increased efficiency, reduced pressure drops, lower exit temperatures and reduced emissions. For instance, the top stage twin cyclones as supplied by KHD are designed with highest dust collection efficiency of > 96 per cent, low exhaust gas temperatures up to 260oC and low pressure drop as low as 350 mmWG (Fig 1). Another development goes into the calciner series wherein the calciner was developed over a time for usage of alternate fuels of varying degree and quality. The developments were made keeping in view the requirement of industry to use more of alternate fuels than the noble nonrenewable fuel sources (Fig 2). Today the trend stands for the more and more usage of alternate fuels up to 90 per cent in the pyroprocessing system thus, decreasing the load on mother nature and contributing towards the ‘2050 Climate Ambition’.

**Fig 1: High Efficiency Preheater Cyclone Development by KHD**

Fig 2: Calciner modifications by KHD for AFR usage

Another trend is for decreased thermal energy consumption, which is addressed by developing the preheater cyclones and calciner by KHD. To arrest the radiation losses in the system KHD is doing proper insulation in the preheater and ducts along with special aluminum-based paints to retain the heat within the system and increase the availability for intrinsic processes. We will deal with more of the global mandates in coming sections on environment trends.
Cooling solutions have always played a major role in any clinkerisation line. The earlier generations of coolers like the rotary cooler, satellite coolers were replaced by grate coolers in the eras of 90 and later walking floor coolers. Further, developments were made in these coolers as better features like KHD further developed its clinker cooler ‘Static Inlet’ with state-of-art features. Latest generation clinker cooler ‘Static Grate’ is designed with ‘Horse Shoe’ for optimal clinker distribution on the static grate with high specific cooling air to achieve the benefits of highest recuperation efficiency, excellent clinker distribution across cooler width, minimum ‘Snowman’ formation and low clinker temperature at beginning of moving grate. For the cooling zone section, low maintenance-high efficiency grate plates are being offered. The salient features of these patented plates are autogenous wear protection and reduced pressure drop due to optimally designed aeration slots. Also, the fall through of dust was eliminated by the development of better sealing arrangements (Fig 3).
Another upcoming trend in the cement industry is the generation of power from exhaust. As known India is amongst the few G20 countries to be on track to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) committed under the Paris Agreement. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Indian Cement Industry has the highest potential (amongst identified sectors) to generate energy from waste. However, potential also lies in providing the technologies, which can provide the maximum waste heat. For instance, KHD coolers have high potential to provide more of the exhaust heat from its midpoint in order to be captured by the boiler after hot air recirculation
Also providing an intermediate crusher has an advantage of increasing the midair temp. Similarly in preheaters more of the exhaust gases are captured to generate more power. Recently one of the plants operating with KHD Preheater and cooler has generated approx. 15 MW gross from a potential 8000 tpd clinkerisation unit.
One more additional trend upcoming in the pyro system is the use of alternate raw materials to produce clinker without compromising on the quality and parameters. Selected waste and by-products containing useful minerals such as calcium, silica, alumina and iron can be used as raw materials in the kiln, replacing raw materials such as clay, shale and limestone. Even to some extent 3 per cent slag can be used in the raw material replacing some of the traditional raw material. In one of the KHD plants in Novotroitsk, Russia, copper slag, which is a byproduct from nearby industry, replaced up to 30 per cent of raw material for clinker production.

Fig 3: Efficiency enhancing cooler components characteristics of KHD coolers

This iron corrective component (Martin Slag) material not only acts as alternate raw material but also produces heat and fulfils the heat content requirement of the process. This has led to the World Record of specific heat consumption of only 600 kCal/kg clinker (Fig 5).

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND TRENDS
The Indian Cement Industry has a lot of potential to use alternate fuel in the manufacture of cement with benefit in terms of conservation of natural resources and prevention of environmental hazards including mitigation of greenhouse gas emission, all of which serves the goal of sustainable growth and development in India. Today, many cement plants are exploring to collect all the municipal waste of the area, process it and use it as an alternate fuel. Keeping in view all these, long time back KHD has rolled down equipment to use alternate fuels of varying degree. One such example is the combustion chamber.
KHD Combustion chamber is especially designed to burn the material, which is lumpy and coarse in nature as well as difficult to ignite. An optimised flow pattern of the gas-meal-fuel suspension within the vessel is necessary to accomplish that without creating excessive calciner dimensions. The Calciner design is based on the requirements of Creation of subsequent zones with dedicated functions for a controlled process of NOx reduction, staged combustion and mixing zone for a reliable final oxidisation on CO-remains.
KHD Pyrorotor® is a unique rotary combustion reactor that sustainably co-processes waste materials. Within the range of modular solutions from KHD for co-processing of alternative fuels in the clinker production process, the Pyrorotor® covers the demands for highest TSR rates of least pre-processed AF. Due to the high temperature process and longer residence time, it is suitable for nearly all types of coarse solid fuels. Tertiary air is used as combustion air for burning of fuels. (Fig 6).
Emissions are released from cement kilns, coming from the physical and chemical reactions of the raw materials and from the combustion of fuels. There is a system consisting of equipment to draw, condition and analyse the flue gas sample and provide a permanent record of emissions and process parameters continuously on a real time basis and is called “Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS)”. It is of vital importance to install the CEMS system as the source can be controlled after measuring the emissions. However, some of the cement manufacturers in India have not installed the CEMS in their cement plants. It must be a collaborative effort of cement manufacturers, suppliers, consultants and Government to achieve the objective of emission control. KHD is trying to ensure that all the plants equipped with KHD technology get CEMS implemented to protect the environment.

Fig 6: Latest and most energy efficient circuit
with RP: COMFLEX

An example equipment from KHD for reducing the emissions at source is the Low NOx burner (Pyro-Jet® Burner). The most imperative features of the burner are the Low NOx emissions, low primary air, and flame (stable and uniform) characteristics. The flame of the PYRO-JET® burner has both an internal recirculation zone and a long external one which results in considerable NOx reduction.
Pyroclon®-R Low NOx AF is the special design calciner, which attains retention time that is desired for complete burnout of the fuel. Another prominent solution from KHD for reducing the NOX emissions is the PYROREDOX® system where the NOx coming from the kiln gets further reduced and formation of Fuel NOx is suppressed.

TRENDS IN GRINDING TECHNOLOGY
The buzz word for grinding systems remains from decades is Electrical Energy Consumption. This is because nearly 65 per cent of the energy consumed in cement plants is attributable to grinding systems. Roller Presses are the solution for grinding circuits. Comflex Grinding system from KHD (Fig 6) consumes less energy compared to other process circuits and is a proven fact for raw material and slag grinding. In case of clinker grinding application also, less specific power is established with roller press in finish mode operations as compared to other technologies available at present. Some of the operating results, which are shared in the next section depict the energy efficiency of a roller press.
Dust Free Circuits: Today most of the plants face the problem of fugitive emissions as well as point source dust spillage. It is well known that the KHD COMFLEX grinding circuits are dust free circuits with no belt conveyors in the grinding and separation group. Also, due the compact arrangement the system has less vibration and hence less noise level. Air chutes avoid mechanical conveying in the grinding circuit and can take feed of more than 1000 tons per hour and accept even coarse and moist fresh feed. The air chute consists of an inlet- and outlet section, each with air lock, the standard sections, the air supply, and venting. From its dimensions the housing is similar to an air slide. Wear protection plates are used instead of cloth for low maintenance operation. Simple air-slide fans are used to introduce ambient air or hot air, if moist materials are conveyed.
Water consumption in cement plants is a necessity, which plays a role as process water, recirculation water and potable water. In the context of the grinding systems vertical raw mills require additional water for bed stabilisation and water sprays into cement mills for temperature control by evaporative cooling. This is not the case in a roller press as water requirement is very insignificant, max 1 m3/hr in comparison to VRM Requirement of 8-10m3/hr. When a cement plant is located in a desert environment the process has to be specifically designed to have low water consumption. Hence, KHD Roller Presses come in picture as the best water conserving machines.
On any grinding surface lowest wear rates are achieved, if the ground material itself provides the wear protection. This is reached by profiling the surface in a way that it is partly covered with ground material. KHD’s patented STUD-Lining (Fig 8), consists of extremely wear resistant carbide cylinders inserted in the roller surface. More than 70 per cent of the roller surface is covered with ground material, acting as autogenous wear protection. Wear rate of rollers/table in VRM is higher than Roller Press and this can be well attributed to the stud surfaces as offered by KHD.
Moreover, KHD is under near offering of high chrome surfaces, which will be more in terms of availability and reliability due to extended wear life.
With the trend of more low clinker to cement ratio this one and foremost step for reduced carbon print, is already in place in the cement industry. Today, India is one of the cement industries, which is moving very fast toward this aspect of green cover. PSC, PPC, Composite cements are the up going curves. Cement Industry is well versed with the utilisation and manufacturing of Blended Cement. KHD is one of the key suppliers for providing energy efficient technologies, viz a roller press grinding for the production of blended cement. It is estimated that decreasing the clinker ratio in production of cement contributes nearly 37 per cent CO2 reduction targeted. By promoting PPC and PSC cement in India, more than 85 per cent cement is produced as blended cement / composite cement (which has come into existence during the last 3-5 years). PPC allows 35 per cent fly-ash usage at present, whereas PSC allows 55 per cent to 65 per cent granulated slag in clinker. Increase of Pozzolona (fly-ash) usage in PPC up to 45 per cent can reduce the carbon footprint further, which has a permissible limit up to 55 per cent in some European countries.

MODERNISATION AND UPGRADATION TRENDS
Apart from building new production lines to increase the capacity, there is a rising trend for upgradation and modernisation of existing set-ups. Utilisation of existing kilns to its maximum potential is an art. This concept not only enhances clinker production but also significantly contributes in improving the overall operational efficiency. The reduced thermal and electrical energy demands will aid in reducing the carbon footprint of existing plants.
To cater market demands in this area, KHD, offers extensive modernisation solutions, which includes PH cyclones modification, optimised dip tubes, suitable riser ducts, high efficiency top cyclones, new generation clinker cooler, cooler plates, state-of-art Low NOx-AF calciner solutions etc. in Pyro section and latest generation separators, milling parts etc. in grinding section. KHD’s experience in this area is unparalleled and hence established as one of the leading technological solution providers to modernise existing cement plants.
In the last few years, KHD has implemented new technologies to modernise the number of existing plants with the prime objective of achieving enhanced productivity, improved energy efficiency and reduced emissions. The results from these plants are quite satisfactory and paved the way for more such projects from various customers globally.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE TRENDS
Best operating practices, efficient and reliable equipment and plant availability are the parameters, which define the efficiency of a cement plant. The detailed designing of the equipment play a critical role in the reliability of the equipment e.g. the cylindrical roller bearing for the rollers due its shape and radial load carrying capacity doesn’t suffer skewing in the roller bearing housing and are easy for sealing and safer, too. Similarly, upside equipment like rod sizer, metal detector, magnetic separators are some of the equipment, which are protecting and ensuring the long operating hours and smooth operation flow of the major equipment. The robust kiln shell and tires, low wear and tear of coolers calls up for very less maintenance over years. This leads to nearly full time availability of the system throughout the year. Also, machinery suppliers such as KHD take over annual maintenance contracts of the plant to improve the reliability of machines thus enhancing overall productivity.

DIGITISATION AND AUTOMATION TRENDS
The path forward for the industry is clear: embrace digitisation and sustainability. Putting these two trends at the core of planning for the future will help cement players catch up to those in other heavy industries and achieve considerable productivity gains. In an industry where regaining lost revenues can take years, it is crucial to kick off now to both recover from the impact of pandemic and make cement players more resilient to future disruptions.
Indeed, the cement plant of the future will operate in a drastically different way than today’s plants. It will achieve considerably lower operating costs and higher asset value through higher energy efficiency, yield, and throughput. More targeted and effective maintenance lengthens the lifetime of equipment. Each plant’s environmental footprint is minimised, securing its licence to operate across locations and jurisdictions. The plant meets customer demand by dynamically adjusting production and logistics according to real-time customer data. Excited, engaged employees focus on value-added activities, and all non-value-added tasks are automated. Real-time information is available for managers remotely at all levels to make better decisions. Digital twins simulate and optimise the overall impact of external variability in operations ranging from complex processes such as burning to more structured activities such as maintenance.
Fewer workers are required to be on-site continuously, and interactive online dashboards allow managers to remotely collaborate, solve problems, and quickly make informed decisions with the rest of the team. Maintenance engineers are alerted of faults in equipment or of opportunities for maintenance immediately, and they receive step-by-step instructions on how to repair with the aid of augmented reality. This will cater to one of the main concerns of safety of individuals avoiding frequent proximity of accidental areas and occupational hazards.

CONCLUSION
Today there are identified levers, which are shaping the industry to reach the highest point of the curve of sustainability vs time period. Cement manufacturers are taking a big leap for achieving the goals as established by various associations and global bodies. Although the trend is more towards the decarbonisation of the industry, capacity utilisations, productivity enhancements and controlled emissions are big watchers. The Indian cement industry has been working on the issue of its GHG emissions and has brought down the CO2 emission factor considerably. However, it has to work more to achieve the goals of Cement and Concrete Roadmap 2050 for the Net Zero Concrete. The leading cement and concrete companies in India have accepted the goal to achieve Net Zero Concrete by 2050 and committed to fully contribute to building the sustainable world of tomorrow. However, the industry needs to work more on newer technologies like Renewable Energy, Novel Cements, Carbon Capture and Storage/Utilisation. Cement technology suppliers are doing their work and are in the process of rolling out these technologies with the main plants. KHD has done advanced work in this field and has solutions like LC cement. As part of the Made in India concept KHD is also promoting more manufacturing in Indian workshops with improved quality, which can aim at improved reliability of the equipment. All these steps are keen steps to make the Indian cement industry cherish and flourish achieving the roadmaps of carbon reduction, increased capacity to meet the demands and go in liasoning of government plans.

Authors: A K Dembla, Sandeep Zutshi and Deepti Varshney

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Concrete

Refractory demands in our kiln have changed

Published

2 days ago

February 20, 2026

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Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, points out why performance, predictability and life-cycle value now matter more than routine replacement in cement kilns.

As Indian cement plants push for higher throughput, increased alternative fuel usage and tighter shutdown cycles, refractory performance in kilns and pyro-processing systems is under growing pressure. In this interview, Radha Singh, Senior Manager (P&Q), Shree Digvijay Cement, shares how refractory demands have evolved on the ground and how smarter digital monitoring is improving kiln stability, uptime and clinker quality.

How have refractory demands changed in your kiln and pyro-processing line over the last five years?
Over the last five years, refractory demands in our kiln and pyro line have changed. Earlier, the focus was mostly on standard grades and routine shutdown-based replacement. But now, because of higher production loads, more alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) usage and greater temperature variation, the expectation from refractory has increased.
In our own case, the current kiln refractory has already completed around 1.5 years, which itself shows how much more we now rely on materials that can handle thermal shock, alkali attack and coating fluctuations. We have moved towards more stable, high-performance linings so that we don’t have to enter the kiln frequently for repairs.
Overall, the shift has been from just ‘installation and run’ to selecting refractories that give longer life, better coating behaviour and more predictable performance under tougher operating conditions.

What are the biggest refractory challenges in the preheater, calciner and cooler zones?
• Preheater: Coating instability, chloride/sulphur cycles and brick erosion.
• Calciner: AFR firing, thermal shock and alkali infiltration.
• Cooler: Severe abrasion, red-river formation and mechanical stress on linings.
Overall, the biggest challenge is maintaining lining stability under highly variable operating conditions.

How do you evaluate and select refractory partners for long-term performance?
In real plant conditions, we don’t select a refractory partner just by looking at price. First, we see their past performance in similar kilns and whether their material has actually survived our operating conditions. We also check how strong their technical support is during shutdowns, because installation quality matters as much as the material itself.
Another key point is how quickly they respond during breakdowns or hot spots. A good partner should be available on short notice. We also look at their failure analysis capability, whether they can explain why a lining failed and suggest improvements.
On top of this, we review the life they delivered in the last few campaigns, their supply reliability and their willingness to offer plant-specific custom solutions instead of generic grades. Only a partner who supports us throughout the life cycle, which includes selection, installation, monitoring and post-failure analysis, fits our long-term requirement.

Can you share a recent example where better refractory selection improved uptime or clinker quality?
Recently, we upgraded to a high-abrasion basic brick at the kiln outlet. Earlier we had frequent chipping and coating loss. With the new lining, thermal stability improved and the coating became much more stable. As a result, our shutdown interval increased and clinker quality remained more consistent. It had a direct impact on our uptime.

How is increased AFR use affecting refractory behaviour?
Increased AFR use is definitely putting more stress on the refractory. The biggest issue we see daily is the rise in chlorine, alkalis and volatiles, which directly attack the lining, especially in the calciner and kiln inlet. AFR firing is also not as stable as conventional fuel, so we face frequent temperature fluctuations, which cause more thermal shock and small cracks in the lining.
Another real problem is coating instability. Some days the coating builds too fast, other days it suddenly drops, and both conditions impact refractory life. We also notice more dust circulation and buildup inside the calciner whenever the AFR mix changes, which again increases erosion.
Because of these practical issues, we have started relying more on alkali-resistant, low-porosity and better thermal shock–resistant materials to handle the additional stress coming from AFR.

What role does digital monitoring or thermal profiling play in your refractory strategy?
Digital tools like kiln shell scanners, IR imaging and thermal profiling help us detect weakening areas much earlier. This reduces unplanned shutdowns, helps identify hotspots accurately and allows us to replace only the critical sections. Overall, our maintenance has shifted from reactive to predictive, improving lining life significantly.

How do you balance cost, durability and installation speed during refractory shutdowns?
We focus on three points:
• Material quality that suits our thermal profile and chemistry.
• Installation speed, in fast turnarounds, we prefer monolithic.
• Life-cycle cost—the cheapest material is not the most economical. We look at durability, future downtime and total cost of ownership.
This balance ensures reliable performance without unnecessary expenditure.

What refractory or pyro-processing innovations could transform Indian cement operations?
Some promising developments include:
• High-performance, low-porosity and nano-bonded refractories
• Precast modular linings to drastically reduce shutdown time
• AI-driven kiln thermal analytics
• Advanced coating management solutions
• More AFR-compatible refractory mixes

These innovations can significantly improve kiln stability, efficiency and maintenance planning across the industry.

Concrete

Digital supply chain visibility is critical

Published

2 days ago

February 20, 2026

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MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, discusses how data, discipline and scale are turning Industry 4.0 into everyday business reality.

Over the past five years, digitalisation in Indian cement manufacturing has moved decisively beyond experimentation. Today, it is a strategic lever for cost control, operational resilience and sustainability. In this interview, MSR Kali Prasad, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Shree Cement, explains how integrated digital foundations, advanced analytics and real-time visibility are helping deliver measurable business outcomes.

How has digitalisation moved from pilot projects to core strategy in Indian cement manufacturing over the past five years?
Digitalisation in Indian cement has evolved from isolated pilot initiatives into a core business strategy because outcomes are now measurable, repeatable and scalable. The key shift has been the move away from standalone solutions toward an integrated digital foundation built on standardised processes, governed data and enterprise platforms that can be deployed consistently across plants and functions.
At Shree Cement, this transition has been very pragmatic. The early phase focused on visibility through dashboards, reporting, and digitisation of critical workflows. Over time, this has progressed into enterprise-level analytics and decision support across manufacturing and the supply chain,
with clear outcomes in cost optimisation, margin protection and revenue improvement through enhanced customer experience.
Equally important, digital is no longer the responsibility of a single function. It is embedded into day-to-day operations across planning, production, maintenance, despatch and customer servicing, supported by enterprise systems, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data platforms, and a structured approach to change management.

Which digital interventions are delivering the highest ROI across mining, production and logistics today?
In a capital- and cost-intensive sector like cement, the highest returns come from digital interventions that directly reduce unit costs or unlock latent capacity without significant capex.
Supply chain and planning (advanced analytics): Tools for demand forecasting, S&OP, network optimisation and scheduling deliver strong returns by lowering logistics costs, improving service levels, and aligning production with demand in a fragmented and regionally diverse market.
Mining (fleet and productivity analytics): Data-led mine planning, fleet analytics, despatch discipline, and idle-time reduction improve fuel efficiency and equipment utilisation, generating meaningful savings in a cost-heavy operation.
Manufacturing (APC and process analytics): Advanced Process Control, mill optimisation, and variability reduction improve thermal and electrical efficiency, stabilise quality and reduce rework and unplanned stoppages.
Customer experience and revenue enablement (digital platforms): Dealer and retailer apps, order visibility and digitally enabled technical services improve ease of doing business and responsiveness. We are also empowering channel partners with transparent, real-time information on schemes, including eligibility, utilisation status and actionable recommendations, which improves channel satisfaction and market execution while supporting revenue growth.
Overall, while Artificial Intelligence (AI) and IIoT are powerful enablers, it is advanced analytics anchored in strong processes that typically delivers the fastest and most reliable ROI.

How is real-time data helping plants shift from reactive maintenance to predictive and prescriptive operations?
Real-time and near real-time data is driving a more proactive and disciplined maintenance culture, beginning with visibility and progressively moving toward prediction and prescription.
At Shree Cement, we have implemented a robust SAP Plant Maintenance framework to standardise maintenance workflows. This is complemented by IIoT-driven condition monitoring, ensuring consistent capture of equipment health indicators such as vibration, temperature, load, operating patterns and alarms.
Real-time visibility enables early detection of abnormal conditions, allowing teams to intervene before failures occur. As data quality improves and failure histories become structured, predictive models can anticipate likely failure modes and recommend timely interventions, improving MTBF and reducing downtime. Over time, these insights will evolve into prescriptive actions, including spares readiness, maintenance scheduling, and operating parameter adjustments, enabling reliability optimisation with minimal disruption.
A critical success factor is adoption. Predictive insights deliver value only when they are embedded into daily workflows, roles and accountability structures. Without this, they remain insights without action.

In a cost-sensitive market like India, how do cement companies balance digital investment with price competitiveness?
In India’s intensely competitive cement market, digital investments must be tightly linked to tangible business outcomes, particularly cost reduction, service improvement, and faster decision-making.
This balance is achieved by prioritising high-impact use cases such as planning efficiency, logistics optimisation, asset reliability, and process stability, all of which typically deliver quick payback. Equally important is building scalable and governed digital foundations that reduce the marginal cost of rolling out new use cases across plants.
Digitally enabled order management, live despatch visibility, and channel partner platforms also improve customer centricity while controlling cost-to-serve, allowing service levels to improve without proportionate increases in headcount or overheads.
In essence, the most effective digital investments do not add cost. They protect margins by reducing variability, improving planning accuracy, and strengthening execution discipline.

How is digitalisation enabling measurable reductions in energy consumption, emissions, and overall carbon footprint?
Digitalisation plays a pivotal role in improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions and lowering overall carbon intensity.
Real-time monitoring and analytics enable near real-time tracking of energy consumption and critical operating parameters, allowing inefficiencies to be identified quickly and corrective actions to be implemented. Centralised data consolidation across plants enables benchmarking, accelerates best-practice adoption, and drives consistent improvements in energy performance.
Improved asset reliability through predictive maintenance reduces unplanned downtime and process instability, directly lowering energy losses. Digital platforms also support more effective planning and control of renewable energy sources and waste heat recovery systems, reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
Most importantly, digitalisation enables sustainability progress to be tracked with greater accuracy and consistency, supporting long-term ESG commitments.

What role does digital supply chain visibility play in managing demand volatility and regional market dynamics in India?
Digital supply chain visibility is critical in India, where demand is highly regional, seasonality is pronounced, and logistics constraints can shift rapidly.
At Shree Cement, planning operates across multiple horizons. Annual planning focuses on capacity, network footprint and medium-term demand. Monthly S&OP aligns demand, production and logistics, while daily scheduling drives execution-level decisions on despatch, sourcing and prioritisation.
As digital maturity increases, this structure is being augmented by central command-and-control capabilities that manage exceptions such as plant constraints, demand spikes, route disruptions and order prioritisation. Planning is also shifting from aggregated averages to granular, cost-to-serve and exception-based decision-making, improving responsiveness, lowering logistics costs and strengthening service reliability.

How prepared is the current workforce for Industry 4.0, and what reskilling strategies are proving most effective?
Workforce preparedness for Industry 4.0 is improving, though the primary challenge lies in scaling capabilities consistently across diverse roles.
The most effective approach is to define capability requirements by role and tailor enablement accordingly. Senior leadership focuses on digital literacy for governance, investment prioritisation, and value tracking. Middle management is enabled to use analytics for execution discipline and adoption. Frontline sales and service teams benefit from
mobile-first tools and KPI-driven workflows, while shop-floor and plant teams focus on data-driven operations, APC usage, maintenance discipline, safety and quality routines.
Personalised, role-based learning paths, supported by on-ground champions and a clear articulation of practical benefits, drive adoption far more effectively than generic training programmes.

Which emerging digital technologies will fundamentally reshape cement manufacturing in the next decade?
AI and GenAI are expected to have the most significant impact, particularly when combined with connected operations and disciplined processes.
Key technologies likely to reshape the sector include GenAI and agentic AI for faster root-cause analysis, knowledge access, and standardisation of best practices; industrial foundation models that learn patterns across large sensor datasets; digital twins that allow simulation of process changes before implementation; and increasingly autonomous control systems that integrate sensors, AI, and APC to maintain stability with minimal manual intervention.
Over time, this will enable more centralised monitoring and management of plant operations, supported by strong processes, training and capability-building.

Concrete

Redefining Efficiency with Digitalisation

Published

2 days ago

February 20, 2026

admin

Professor Procyon Mukherjee discusses how as the cement industry accelerates its shift towards digitalisation, data-driven technologies are becoming the mainstay of sustainability and control across the value chain.

The cement industry, long perceived as traditional and resistant to change, is undergoing a profound transformation driven by digital technologies. As global infrastructure demand grows alongside increasing pressure to decarbonise and improve productivity, cement manufacturers are adopting data-centric tools to enhance performance across the value chain. Nowhere is this shift more impactful than in grinding, which is the energy-intensive final stage of cement production, and in the materials that make grinding more efficient: grinding media and grinding aids.

The imperative for digitalisation
Cement production accounts for roughly 7 per cent to 8 per cent of global CO2 emissions, largely due to the energy intensity of clinker production and grinding processes. Digital solutions, such as AI-driven process controls and digital twins, are helping plants improve stability, cut fuel use and reduce emissions while maintaining consistent product quality. In one deployment alongside ABB’s process controls at a Heidelberg plant in Czechia, AI tools cut fuel use by 4 per cent and emissions by 2 per cent, while also improving operational stability.
Digitalisation in cement manufacturing encompasses a suite of technologies, broadly termed as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI and machine learning, predictive analytics, cloud-based platforms, advanced process control and digital twins, each playing a role in optimising various stages of production from quarrying to despatch.

Grinding: The crucible of efficiency and cost
Of all the stages in cement production, grinding is among the most energy-intensive, historically consuming large amounts of electricity and representing a significant portion of plant operating costs. As a result, optimising grinding operations has become central to digital transformation strategies.
Modern digital systems are transforming grinding mills from mechanical workhorses into intelligent, interconnected assets. Sensors throughout the mill measure parameters such as mill load, vibration, mill speed, particle size distribution, and power consumption. This real-time data, fed into machine learning and advanced process control (APC) systems, can dynamically adjust operating conditions to maintain optimal throughput and energy usage.
For example, advanced grinding systems now predict inefficient conditions, such as impending mill overload, by continuously analysing acoustic and vibration signatures. The system can then proactively adjust clinker feed rates and grinding media distribution to sustain optimal conditions, reducing energy consumption and improving consistency.

Digital twins: Seeing grinding in the virtual world
One of the most transformative digital tools applied in cement grinding is the digital twin, which a real-time virtual replica of physical equipment and processes. By integrating sensor data and
process models, digital twins enable engineers to simulate process variations and run ‘what-if’
scenarios without disrupting actual production. These simulations support decisions on variables such as grinding media charge, mill speed and classifier settings, allowing optimisation of energy use and product fineness.
Digital twins have been used to optimise kilns and grinding circuits in plants worldwide, reducing unplanned downtime and allowing predictive maintenance to extend the life of expensive grinding assets.

Grinding media and grinding aids in a digital era
While digital technologies improve control and prediction, materials science innovations in grinding media and grinding aids have become equally crucial for achieving performance gains.
Grinding media, which comprise the balls or cylinders inside mills, directly influence the efficiency of clinker comminution. Traditionally composed of high-chrome cast iron or forged steel, grinding media account for nearly a quarter of global grinding media consumption by application, with efficiency improvements translating directly to lower energy intensity.
Recent advancements include ceramic and hybrid media that combine hardness and toughness to reduce wear and energy losses. For example, manufacturers such as Sanxin New Materials in China and Tosoh Corporation in Japan have developed sub-nano and zirconia media with exceptional wear resistance. Other innovations include smart media embedded with sensors to monitor wear, temperature, and impact forces in real time, enabling predictive maintenance and optimal media replacement scheduling. These digitally-enabled media solutions can increase grinding efficiency by as much as 15 per cent.
Complementing grinding media are grinding aids, which are chemical additives that improve mill throughput and reduce energy consumption by altering the surface properties of particles, trapping air, and preventing re-agglomeration. Technology leaders like SIKA AG and GCP Applied Technologies have invested in tailored grinding aids compatible with AI-driven dosing platforms that automatically adjust additive concentrations based on real-time mill conditions. Trials in South America reported throughput improvements nearing 19 per cent when integrating such digital assistive dosing with process control systems.
The integration of grinding media data and digital dosing of grinding aids moves the mill closer to a self-optimising system, where AI not only predicts media wear or energy losses but prescribes optimal interventions through automated dosing and operational adjustments.

Global case studies in digital adoption
Several cement companies around the world exemplify digital transformation in practice.
Heidelberg Materials has deployed digital twin technologies across global plants, achieving up to 15 per cent increases in production efficiency and 20 per cent reductions in energy consumption by leveraging real-time analytics and predictive algorithms.
Holcim’s Siggenthal plant in Switzerland piloted AI controllers that autonomously adjusted kiln operations, boosting throughput while reducing specific energy consumption and emissions.
Cemex, through its AI and predictive maintenance initiatives, improved kiln availability and reduced maintenance costs by predicting failures before they occurred. Global efforts also include AI process optimisation initiatives to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact.

Challenges and the road ahead
Despite these advances, digitalisation in cement grinding faces challenges. Legacy equipment may lack sensor readiness, requiring retrofits and edge-cloud connectivity upgrades. Data governance and integration across plants and systems remains a barrier for many mid-tier producers. Yet, digital transformation statistics show momentum: more than half of cement companies have implemented IoT sensors for equipment monitoring, and digital twin adoption is growing rapidly as part of broader Industry 4.0 strategies.
Furthermore, as digital systems mature, they increasingly support sustainability goals: reduced energy use, optimised media consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions. By embedding intelligence into grinding circuits and material inputs like grinding aids, cement manufacturers can strike a balance between efficiency and environmental stewardship.
Conclusion
Digitalisation is not merely an add-on to cement manufacturing. It is reshaping the competitive and sustainability landscape of an industry often perceived as inertia-bound. With grinding representing a nexus of energy intensity and cost, digital technologies from sensor networks and predictive analytics to digital twins offer new levers of control. When paired with innovations in grinding media and grinding aids, particularly those with embedded digital capabilities, plants can achieve unprecedented gains in efficiency, predictability and performance.
For global cement producers aiming to reduce costs and carbon footprints simultaneously, the future belongs to those who harness digital intelligence not just to monitor operations, but to optimise and evolve them continuously.

About the author:
Professor Procyon Mukherjee, ex-CPO Lafarge-Holcim India, ex-President Hindalco, ex-VP Supply Chain Novelis Europe, has been an industry leader in logistics, procurement, operations and supply chain management. His career spans 38 years starting from Philips, Alcan Inc (Indian Aluminum Company), Hindalco, Novelis and Holcim. He authored the book, ‘The Search for Value in Supply Chains’. He serves now as Visiting Professor in SP Jain Global, SIOM and as the Adjunct Professor at SBUP. He advises leading Global Firms including Consulting firms on SCM and Industrial Leadership and is a subject matter expert in aluminum and cement. An Alumnus of IIM Calcutta and Jadavpur University, he has completed the LH Senior Leadership Programme at IVEY Academy at Western University, Canada.