Cement and Energy

ENERGY CONSERVATION THROUGH PLANT OPERATIONAL AUDIT: HOLTEC'S EXPERIENCES Holtec Consulting Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi E ven the most advanced cement manufacturing technology does not, on its own, guaran tee prolitable operations. The cement manufacturing operation for max imum cost efficiency not on ly requires advanced technological design but also sound process technology operation. The cement industry in India is sti ll lagging behind on energy efticiency operations front compared to world standards. There is an increasing awareness in the industry to optimise energy cost, both electrical and thermal. This awareness has necessitated formulation of requisite strategies to minimise energy consumption 800 , ,__. 700 ,L.7 600 c 500 Q) E ,L.I7 ,.:::17 Q) u 400 0 .t:: 300 (/) a: 200 I ' I I t:-7 ' t:.~ p ,.::~ 7 ~ 7 100 0 1990-91 1991 -92 1992-93 in the plants and to maximise the profitability of the operations. Energy Consumption Pattern There has been a steep rise in the cost of production as the cost of energy inputs has increased sharply. The electrical and thermal energy costs as percentage of the total production cost has increased to 40% from 20-25% in 1980, which makes the industry a highly energy intensive one. The impact of increasing cost of energy on the total cost for typical cement plants in India is shown in Figure I. z / ,L.C7 L[7 DCoal r::;; '7 CPower LA ~~ '7 r p "":' ; H IX j::; : DTotal 1/ 17 f7 17 f7 17 17 ~ f7 177 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 Figure I Cost of energy vs total cost (Source : Energy Summit '96) The ~pecilic energy consumption levels in India have come down ~teaJ il y and substantially during the past few yea rs due to adop tion of technological improvements in the industry. However, still the lndian cement industry's energy performance is not comparable to the best results ach1eved in other countries world-wide. The thermal energy and electrical energy consumption trends for Indian cement industry is presented in Figure 2. 1100 1000 900 118 800 700 116 - kWhll cement -kcallkg clinker 600 114+------+------~----~----~------4 500 90·91 91-92 92-93 93-94 94·95 95·96 Years Figure 2 Energy consumption trends in Indian cement mdustry (Source: Energy Summit'96) 5