Economy & Market

Our focus has been integrating digital monitoring tools

Published

1 year ago

March 11, 2025

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Gaurav Gautam, Business Unit Head, Beumer Group, talks about bulk material handling with predictive maintenance, digital transformation and customised sustainable solutions.

Efficient bulk material handling is crucial for the cement industry, where operational efficiency and sustainability go hand in hand. Beumer Group, a global leader in material handling solutions, is redefining industry standards with digital transformation and innovative technologies. In this exclusive interview, Gaurav Gautam, Business Unit Head, Beumer Group, discusses how their cutting-edge solutions optimise equipment effectiveness, enhance predictive maintenance and drive sustainability. From reducing carbon footprints
to improving material transport, he sheds light on the company’s commitment to future-ready operations.

Can you tell us about some of theinnovative products you supply to the cement industry and how they have helped improve operations?
We do not want to remain solely focused on products. Instead, what we are offering is a complete value proposition for our customers. While the product itself is an essential part of our offering, we also emphasise long-term services, product lifecycle cost optimisation, and total cost of ownership.
When we talk about total cost of ownership and full value propositions, a crucial element in this equation is digital transformation. We are introducing digital tools that go beyond reactive problem-solving. Rather than addressing issues after they have already occurred, we are moving towards a predictive approach. This means we are now able to analyse data and forecast potential problems before they arise—whether in the next month or three months down the line. This predictive capability enhances the overall availability and efficiency of our offerings.
Our focus is on optimising overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), which is determined by three key aspects: availability, accuracy, and throughput. These three factors collectively contribute to improving equipment efficiency. Our product portfolio covers both upstream and downstream operations. On the upstream side, we are highly active in long-distance conveying, cross-country conveyors, stacker reclaimers, and yard equipment handling machines. Additionally, we offer solutions for tall elevators and critical applications for kiln feeds and preheaters. On the downstream side, we provide innovative filling, packing, and palletising machines, ensuring seamless processing from start to finish.

Transporting bulk materials, such as raw materials from mines to cement plants, results in significant wear and tear. Similarly, carrying hot clinker from the kiln to the cooling point before it is fully cooled also causes high levels of wear and tear. How do you manage these challenges?
That is an excellent question. We are material handling experts, and our solutions start right from the mining stage. We are heavily involved in providing stockyard machines, large reclaimers and long-distance conveyors, which help optimise material transport. One of the key areas we focus on is shifting from truck-based transport to mechanical conveying solutions. This shift not only improves efficiency but also significantly reduces carbon footprint.
Once within the plant boundaries, we handle various critical applications, including kiln feed
and post-cooling material transport. Over the years, we have continuously improved our equipment,
such as bucket elevators and apron conveyors, to withstand the high wear and tear associated with cement manufacturing.
A major recent focus has been integrating digital monitoring tools into our equipment. These tools include condition monitoring sensors that track temperature variations, vibrations and operational anomalies in real-time. By capturing this data, plant operators can take proactive actions when conditions start deviating from normal parameters. This approach prevents sudden breakdowns and, in the long term, enhances the durability and reliability of the equipment.
Moving forward, digitalisation will play a key role in tackling wear and tear challenges. By increasing the number of data capture points and applying advanced analytics tools, we can gain deeper insights into equipment health and performance, ensuring a more efficient and predictive maintenance strategy.

In this entire process, what do you think is your carbon footprint, and how do you ensure sustainability in your operations?
Sustainability is a broad and complex subject. However, in my view, sustainability efforts must lead to tangible outcomes—both in terms of environmental benefits and business viability. Simply implementing sustainability initiatives for the sake of it will not be effective unless they generate measurable improvements. Sustainability must address two key aspects: its impact on human life and its contribution to business efficiency.
From a financial standpoint, sustainability initiatives should not become a burden by requiring excessive capital investments without generating returns. Instead, they should lead to long-term cost savings and efficiency gains. This is the approach we take with our products and solutions. We define sustainability ratings for our offerings and work with customers to evaluate the total cost of ownership while integrating sustainable practices.
One practical example is our work in long-distance conveying from mines to cement plants. If a cement plant traditionally relies on 100 trucks per day to transport limestone or other raw materials, replacing those with conveyor systems eliminates fossil fuel consumption, resulting in a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Our conveyor systems are highly energy-efficient, consuming far less power than a fleet of trucks.
Another major focus area is reducing fossil fuel consumption in kilns. The adoption of alternative fuels (AFR) presents a promising solution, but the challenge lies in the processing, pre-processing, and co-processing of AFR. Alternative fuels often have high moisture content and vary widely in composition, making them difficult to handle.
To address these challenges, we are introducing several innovative solutions. These include air-supported conveyors, which eliminate the need for traditional idlers and maintenance-heavy platforms, as well as OptiFeeds, which can handle a broad range of AFR particle sizes and moisture levels. By integrating
these solutions, we aim to make alternative fuel adoption more efficient and practical, thereby contributing to the overall sustainability goals of the cement industry.

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Importance of TSR

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

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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.