Cement Energy and Environment

' ' however requires a 150°C higher temperature than magnesium. The advantage of such an indirectly heated calciner is that the C02 released during calcination is not mixed with the exhaust gases, but can be separated directly resulting in greater than 95% pure C02 without an additional energy– penalty. As no advantage comes for free, in this case the challenge is to operate a double walled calciner with the inner pipe being resistant to 1050°C. To solve this challenge a consortium has been created around Calix, including Heidelberg Cement, Lhoist, Cemex, Amec Foster Wheeler and expert R&D institutes. The EU has awarded the proposal with a €12 million fund to develop the technology and to test it at industrial scale at Heidelberg Cement's Lixhe plant in Belgium. Utilising carbon: technologies and applications under review As mentioned before, in addition to CCS, the development of CCU-applications is key. Heidelberg Cement is monitoring this domain, which consists of many start-up companies and developing technologies. All of them are at different stages of maturity and with a wide variety of potential applicability and hurdles to overcome. Meanwhile the company has defined a set of KPI's against which all these initiatives are being measured. Heidelberg Cement's strategy is to implement quick-wins, even when they are small in terms of C02 abatement, and to systematically develop the larger scale potentials in the long-term in combination with the appropriate technology developers and downstream partners. C02 for algae cultivation At the Degerhamn cement plant in Sweden as well as at the Canakkale works in Turkey, Heidelberg Cement runs R&D-programs to enhance micro-algae cultivation by exposing the strains to C02 rich flue gas. The project in Canakkale is set-up under the umbrella of TUbitak, the leading Turkish institute for industrial R&D projects. After intensive strain selection, practical tests have been done connected to a slipstream of the flue gas, in open ponds and in panel- and tubular photo-bioreactors. The micro-algae have shown an accelerated growth rate due to the C02 and were not affected by the regular impurities of the flue gas. The generated micro-algae have been positively tested by external certification body for its nutrition use in fish hatcheries in Turkey. At the project in Sweden, named Algoland , the Linneaus University has brought in its expertise in micro-algae production. Various cultures have been tested and it appeared that mono-cultures were not as resistant as mixed cultures especially those naturally available in the Baltic Sea. Tests have been performed both in summer as well as winter conditions. Growth rates have been remarkably good and similar to those at the project in Canakkale. In addition, no problems with flue gas minor components were noticed. The next step at both sites is to prepare for larger production volumes and to evaluate the path to commercial application. Courtesy: Worldcement.com, from internet News Brief Mining GOVT PLANS TO MONITOR MINES VIA SPACE TECH Deciding on a tough stand, it will ask states to quantify past illega l mining activities, actions taken to check them The government has taken a tough stand against mining mafia, deciding to monitor all mines, including mineral s such as limestone and sand, through space technologies, and to ask states to quantify past illegal mining activities and actions taken to check them. Mines secretary Balvinder Kumar told ET that satellite mapping of mines wi!l start with major minerals such as iron ore and- gold, and will be gradually extended to minor minerals like limestone and sand where the problem is severe. "Once fully implemented, the move will bring about transformation in the Indian mining industry. We have identified larg.e chunks of illegal mining in many areas. It is rampant in case of minor 67