Technology
Finer the fly ash or slag, more value it commands
Published
7 years agoon
By
admin
– Bhalchandra Shrikhande, a freelance consultant, speaks on split grinding cement units.
What is your opinion on the ease-of-doing business?
There is lot of hype on "ease-of-doing business", but very little has happened in reality at the ground level. The percolation of progressive policies framed at the macro level to promote fast growth in business and manufacturing are yet to make a difference at the working level. The reasons of this are many.
A few among them are lack of clarity in executing the new policies, non-removal of some old and redundant rules and regulations, insistence to go by the letter, and not the spirit of the rules/regulations, sense of apathy among the government officers due to the fact that doing nothing attracts no penalty, but doing something, albeit with good intention, and not getting the desired result does attract enquiry, audits and penalties. There is no compulsion on the decision-making authorities to take appropriate decisions within a reasonable time frame, and to avoid duplicity of efforts in seeking approvals. Let us all hope that sooner or later ease-of-doing business becomes a reality.
What is your assessment of a business model of split grinding cement unit? What are the critical success parameters?
In the beginning, let us look at the parameters of success of a standalone split grinding cement unit. If we evaluate the parameters along with an integrated cement plant, the picture will not be clear. The success of a split grinding cement unit should be measured by the capacity utilisation and the EBIDTA margin of the unit. While working out the manufacturing cost; one should be judicious enough to consider the market prices of all inputs. Special attention needs to be given to the transfer price of clinker from the integrated plant to the grinding unit. It should be close to the real price of clinker in the market. The cornerstones of successful business grinding unit are:
Volume addition is an essential factor in achieving a reasonably good standalone EBIDTA in split grinding cement units. This depends on the percentage addition of mineral components (MiC) like fly ash or slag at the split unit. It is thus very beneficial to have the location of split unit near the source of MiC, i.e. power plant or steel plant. Such a location also helps to get power generated by the power/steel plant at the split unit reliably and cheaply.
Nearness to market having high potential of growth is another important factor concerning location. This results in the "last mile connectivity" to the end consumer and substantial logistics cost saving as well.
Can more of bulk cement (loose cement despatched in bulkers) be a better option for split grinding cement unit along with a smaller proportion of bagged cement?
In today’s world, the operating strategies must keep the customer at the focal point. Customers have different requirements at different times. E.g.: when a construction project is nearing completion, the customer may need more of masonry cement or readymade dry plaster or blended cement of lower grade for flooring/ tiling applications, that too in bags. When concreting job is in progress, he will need cement (OPC) of higher grades in bulkers. Therefore, the grinding unit must be able to cater to all the requirements of the customers. No split grinding plant can survive on bulk cement supply alone. Generally bulk cement goes to large infrastructure and residential projects, and RMC plants. These locations have dedicated batching plants at site. Small retail end users however prefer cement in bags. For packing the cement of different grades in bags, you need to have a packing plant with more number of cement storage silos. For supply of cement in bulk, you need to have arrangements for accommodating different types of bulkers directly under the silos and loading arrangements. Therefore, in order to be successful, you will need all the flexibility in the grinding unit.
The last mile connectivity also eliminates need to have warehouses, reduces double handling and transportation to the point of consumption, on-time delivery, and better quality perception in the mind of the customers.
Logistic seems to be a big challenge for split grinding plants, please comment. Inward and outward movement of materials being critical, how important it becomes to monitor and manage logistics?
Yes, logistics is a considerable challenge and an important cost component especially when you are sourcing clinker as a vendor. Incoming material logistics is essentially a bulk movement either by a rail or a ship. Clinker is moved by railway wagons and directly unloaded by wagon tippler inside the plant. The outgoing movement of cement by rail is desirable but not always feasible. You however need to have good road connectivity for cement evacuation. Export-oriented cement units are required to be located at ports near sea to facilitate direct loading of ships/barges.
Should split grinding cement units be automated by using modern technology in a better way than normal cement plants?
As a corollary to my earlier statement, I would add that to meet challenging customer requirements, like quick delivery and better quality assurance, usage of modern technology is the need of the hour. IoT (Internet of Things) has been successfully used by some cement grinding units for despatch of cement. Today transporters are given smart cards where the entire data of sales order is stored. This results in faster turnaround time of a truck/trailer/bulker. Ready availability of different grades of cement simultaneously meets diverse customer needs. Flexible plant design can operate fast only if equipped with good automation. At short notice you have to shift from one to the other product, different quantities, and different packaging and this can be managed by IoT. Having weighbridges under the loading spouts, auto loading spouts, automatic bag placers, auto pelletizers and loaders, CCTV monitoring of operations etc. help in managing complex tasks easily. Dependence on labour is not only unreliable and costly, but can also lead to delays.
Throw some light on the power scenario of such grinding unit?
For a given split cement grinding unit, power requirement is generally of the order of 8 to 12 MW depending on the size of the unit. In majority of cases power is drawn from the adjoining thermal power plant. If there is steel plant, power can be tapped from the steel plant CPP. In most of the cases it is B2B type of transaction. The practical way is to route it through HT cables. Grid power is unreliable, but given the nature of the grinding unit, this can be managed. However, installing a captive power plant, which is based on multiple DG sets, is ruled out because of high cost. My suggestion is rules should be simplified to draw power from wherever it is convenient and simple.
Most of the split grinding plants are located close to sea or river for easy water way transportation is it correct?
Considering that a very small quantity of cement today is getting exported, in the present situation location near to a port hardly matters. But waterways transport by rivers is an interesting option, which needs to be explored. Water transport eases load on the roads, reduces pollution and is more cost effective.
Is it possible for a grinding plant to invest money in improving the quality of blended materials like fly ash or slag? What has been the practice?
It is very much essential to pre-process the fly ash or slag. Quality of fly ash differs in properties with its particle size distribution. Generally for processing of fly ash, mechanical air classifiers are deployed. Finer the fly ash or slag, more reactive it is, and more value it commands. Superfine fly ash/slag can be directly added to concrete to produce high-performance concrete (HPC). Medium grade fly ash/ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) can be used to manufacture common grades of concrete. Coarse fly ash can be used in the spilt grinding unit to be co-ground with clinker. In case of blast furnace slag, the problem is getting slag lumps that need to be separated. The extent of addition of fly ash/slag component in cement depends on its quality. With better quality of fly ash or slag, more proportion can be added in cement (within what is prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the profitability of the grinding unit will be better.
Do you suggest any better tax structure to make grinding units viable?
Today cement attracts GST at 28 per cent, which is in the highest bracket. Being a basic commodity of construction and infrastructure, the tax component is certainly on the higher side. If the overall industry gets a relief of lower tax rate, then the grinding units also will get the benefit.
Bhalchandra Shrikhande graduated from IIT, Bombay
in Chemical Engineering, and joined ACC Ltd in 1980. After working in ACC for 31 years, he then joined the Indiabulls (now, Rattan India) Group as President – Operations in 2011. At present, Shrikhande is working as a freelance consultant. The businesses in which he has worked are cement and ready-mix concrete.
The functional areas in which he has worked are R&D, process engineering and development, production, strategy/business planning, project execution and management, project engineering and design, management audits, consultancy assignments, organisational development and training.
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Economy & Market
TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race
Published
2 months agoon
April 27, 2026By
admin
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
Reimagining Logistics: Spatial AI and Digital Twins
Published
3 months agoon
April 13, 2026By
admin
Digital twins and spatial AI are transforming cement logistics by enabling real-time visibility, predictive decision-making, and smarter multi-modal operations across the supply chain. Dijam Panigrahi highlights how immersive AR/VR training is bridging workforce skill gaps, helping companies build faster, more efficient, and future-ready logistics systems.
As India accelerates infrastructure investment under flagship programs such as PM GatiShakti and the National Infrastructure Pipeline, the pressure on cement manufacturers to deliver reliably, efficiently, and cost-effectively has never been greater. Yet for all the modernisation that has taken place on the production side, the end-to-end logistics chain, from clinker dispatch to the last-mile delivery of bagged cement to construction sites, remains a domain riddled with inefficiencies, opacity and manual decision-making.
The good news is that a new generation of spatial computing technologies is now mature enough to transform this reality. Digital twins, spatial artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) training platforms are converging to offer cement producers something they have long sought: real-time visibility, autonomous decision-making at the operational edge, and a scalable solution to the persistent skills gap that hampers workforce performance.
Advancing logistics with digital twins
The cement supply chain is uniquely complex. A single integrated plant may manage limestone quarrying, kiln operations, grinding, packing and despatch simultaneously, with finished product flowing through rail, road, and waterway networks to reach hundreds of regional depots and distribution points. Coordinating this network using spreadsheets, siloed ERP data, and phone calls is not merely inefficient; it is a structural liability in a competitive market where delivery reliability is a key differentiator.
Digital twin technology offers a way out. A cement logistics digital twin is a continuously updated, three-dimensional virtual replica of the entire supply chain, from the truck loading bays at the plant to the inventory levels at district depots. By ingesting data from IoT sensors on conveyor belts and packing machines, GPS trackers on road and rail fleets, weighbridge records, and weather feeds, the digital twin provides planners with a single, authoritative picture of where every ton of cement is, in real time.
The value, however, goes well beyond visibility. Because the digital twin mirrors the physical system in dynamic detail, it can run scenario simulations before decisions are executed. If a primary rail corridor is disrupted, logistics managers can model alternative routing options, shifting volumes to road or coastal shipping, and assess the cost and time implications within minutes rather than days. If a packing line at the plant is running below capacity, the twin can automatically recalculate dispatch schedules downstream and alert depot managers to adjust receiving resources accordingly.
For cement companies operating multi-plant networks across geographies as varied as Rajasthan and the North-East, this kind of end-to-end situational awareness is transformative. It collapses information latency from hours to seconds, enables proactive rather than reactive logistics management, and creates the data foundation upon which AI-driven decision-making can be built. Companies that have deployed logistics digital twins in comparable heavy-industry contexts have reported reductions in transit time variability of up to 20 per cent and meaningful decreases in demurrage and detention costs, savings that flow directly to the bottom line.
Smart logistics operations
A digital twin is only as powerful as the intelligence layer that sits on top of it. This is where Spatial AI becomes the critical differentiator for cement logistics.
Traditional logistics management systems are reactive. They record what has happened and flag exceptions after the fact. Spatial AI systems, by contrast, are proactive. They continuously analyse the state of the logistics network as represented in the digital twin, identify emerging bottlenecks before they crystallise into delays, and recommend corrective actions.
At the plant gate, AI-powered visual inspection systems using spatial depth-sensing cameras can assess truck conditions, verify load integrity and confirm seal tamper status in seconds, replacing the manual checks that currently slow throughput. At the depot level, Spatial AI can monitor stock drawdown rates in real time, cross-reference them against pending customer orders and inbound shipment ETAs, and automatically trigger replenishment orders when safety thresholds are approached. In transit, AI systems processing GPS and telematics data can detect anomalous vehicle behaviour, including extended stops, route deviations, speed irregularities and alert fleet managers instantly.
Perhaps most significantly for Indian cement logistics, Spatial AI can optimise the complex multi-modal routing decisions that are central to competitive cost management. Given the variability in road quality, seasonal accessibility, rail rake availability, and regional demand patterns across India’s vast geography, the combinatorial complexity of routing optimisation is beyond human planners working with conventional tools. AI systems can process this complexity continuously and adapt routing recommendations as conditions change, reducing empty running, improving vehicle utilisation and cutting fuel costs.
The agentic dimension of modern AI is particularly relevant here. Agentic AI systems do not merely analyse and recommend; they act. In a cement logistics context, this means an AI system that can, within pre-authorised boundaries, directly communicate revised dispatch instructions to plant teams, update booking confirmations with freight forwarders and reallocate available rail rakes across plant locations, all without waiting for a human to process a recommendation and make a call. For logistics executives, this represents a genuine shift from managing a workforce to setting the rules of engagement and reviewing outcomes. The operational tempo achievable with agentic AI simply cannot be matched by human-in-the-loop systems working at the pace of emails and phone calls.
Bridging the skills gap
Technology investments in digital twins and spatial AI will deliver diminishing returns if the human workforce cannot operate effectively within the new systems they create. This is a challenge that India’s cement industry cannot afford to underestimate. The sector relies on a large, geographically dispersed workforce, including truck drivers, depot managers, despatch supervisors, fleet maintenance technicians, many of whom have been trained on paper-based processes and manual workflows. Retraining this workforce for a digitised, AI-augmented environment is a substantial undertaking, and conventional classroom or on-the-job training methods are poorly suited to the scale and pace required.
Immersive AR and VR training platforms offer a fundamentally different approach. By creating photorealistic, interactive simulations of logistics environments, such as a plant dispatch bay, a depot yard, the interior of a cement truck cab, allow workers to practice complex procedures and decision-making scenarios in a safe, consequence-free virtual environment. A depot manager can work through a simulated rail rake delay scenario, making decisions about customer allocation and communication
without the pressure of real orders being affected. A truck driver can practice the correct procedure for securing a load of bagged cement without the risk of a road incident.
The learning science case for immersive training is compelling. Studies consistently show that experiential, simulation-based learning produces faster skill acquisition and higher retention rates than didactic instruction, with some research indicating retention rates three to four times higher for VR-based training compared to classroom methods. For complex operational procedures where muscle memory and situational awareness matter as much as conceptual knowledge, the advantage of immersive simulation is even more pronounced.
Today’s leading cloud-based spatial computing platforms enable high-fidelity AR and VR training experiences to be delivered on standard mobile devices, removing the hardware barrier that has historically made immersive training impractical for large, distributed workforces. This is particularly relevant for cement companies with depots and logistics operations in tier-two and tier-three locations, where access to specialised training hardware cannot be assumed.
The integration of AR into live operations also creates ongoing learning opportunities beyond formal training programs. As an example, maintenance technicians equipped with AR overlays can receive step-by-step guidance for equipment procedures directly in their field of view, reducing error rates and service times for critical plant and fleet assets.
New strategy, new horizons
India’s cement industry is entering a period of intensifying competition, rising logistics costs, and demanding customers with shrinking tolerance for delivery variability. The companies that will lead over the next decade will be those that treat logistics not as a cost centre to be minimised, but as a strategic capability to be built.
Digital twins, spatial AI and immersive AR/VR training are not distant future technologies, they are deployable today on infrastructure that Indian cement companies already operate. The question is not whether to adopt them, but how quickly to do so and where to begin.
About the author:
Dijam Panigrahi is Co-Founder and COO of GridRaster Inc., a provider of cloud-based spatial computing platforms that power high-quality digital twin and immersive AR/VR experiences on mobile devices for enterprises. GridRaster’s technology is deployed across manufacturing, logistics and infrastructure sectors globally.
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