Mayank Kamdar, Marketing Director, Lilanand Magnesites, gives details about development in refractories that affect cement production.

Tell us about the refractories made and delivered by your organisation.
We are manufacturers of special and high performance castable and gunning refractory. These are manufactured at our Gujrat factory. We also have an integrated R&D centre there with all types of testing facilities. We primarily manufacture these castable, gunning refractories and anti-coating paints material there.

How do your refractories impact the productivity of the cement plants?
The refractory cost is less compared to the total expenditure of a cement plant – it might be 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent of the total expenditure. Refractory efforts can improve efficiency of the plant by up to 60 per cent. It plays an important role as far as productivity of a cement plant is concerned. Nowadays, cement plants are switching focus from the cost of the material to the absolute cost of the material. You need to be ready to spend on the extra life of the refractory to ensure that efficiency and productivity is increased. As the demand of cement is increasing day by day, all the companies are focused on better refractory life at affordable costs.

What is the lifespan of your refractories?
It depends on the area. Usually in the critical areas that we are catering to, the lifespan varies from around 12 to 24 months. We provide unshaped refractories, and not bricks or pre-cast shapes. We manufacture gunning and castable refractories and they have a life of up to 24 months.

Tell us about the maintenance and quality standards for your refractories.
Our process is ISO certified. As a premium refractory manufacturer, we are particular about choosing our raw materials. We conduct a lot of tests on our finished goods before they are despatched. So, there is rigorous testing of our raw material and finished goods as far as refractories are concerned.

How do you contribute towards sustainability or being environment friendly?
Refractory material is made using a lot of fuel. Minerals need to be extracted from the raw materials. In aluminium-based refractory, high grade boxes are made. Since this process requires a lot of fuel, it is our perception that if the refractory gives better life not only does the customer get benefitted because of better costs but the environment is also positively impacted. A medium quality refractory castable would more or less require the same energy or fuel as high performance refractories.
If the life of high performance refractory is doubled, the overall impact on the environment can be reduced by 50 per cent by way of improving life and by using better refract one can contribute to environment sustainability.
Again, our factory has an integrated solar power plant where we are able to generate more electricity than is used by our refractory. Our factory is power positive. We have also introduced false air ceiling putty, which ensures that the false air ceiling draft is positive inside the preterm area. So, the environmental air rushes towards the preterm area where there are small holes, gaps and air pockets. We have developed one putty that will seal the small and big gaps and not allow atmospheric air to get trapped inside the preterm area. This increases the efficiency by reducing the false air. Savings in terms of money amount to approximately Rs 2 – 4 crores annually. A normal cement plant can save on this amount by regulating the false air.

New fuels and materials are being used for the making of cement. Do they have an impact on your product or the product is adaptable to all kinds of fuels and materials?
The refractory should be able to withstand high abrasion and chemical attacks. You can get it right if the refractory is chemically not very reactive. There would be an effect of AFR and other fuels but the effect could be minimised and controlled with the use of good refractories. Some companies are facing the problem of coating and maybe cyclones are getting jammed in the plant, so if they use anti-coating castable paints that we manufacture, which is applied over the castables, it provides extra protection against chemical attacks and abrasion. Companies are using such innovative products to minimise the effect of the alternative fuels.
All refractories are obtained from mining the earth and natural resources are depleting. The biggest challenge for any refractory manufacturer is to maintain the same quality of products. With depleting resources, they have to get new mixed designs in such a way that the quality is sustained.

Is there a way to making refractories that will not deplete the natural resources?
As such there is no solution. But it can be used in a conservative way. If you use a good refractory with better life and overall tonnage, it will help produce the same amount of cement.

Tell us about the innovations and new developments in refractories.
This year there is a continuous improvement in the quality and products that we are producing. If you consider castable, we have increased our range of constables, with more focus on inlet refractories where more and more companies are using
AFR, PET coke and other alternative fuels. We have developed refractories that minimise chemical abrasion. Even with the use of AFR and other deteriorating fuels, we are able to increase the life of inlet refractories considerably.

-Kanika Mathur