Cement Energy and Environment

Indian Cement Industry Today Indian cement industry is a mature and world class industry in terms of production technology, efficiencies of the processes and product quality and range.. Unlike most other cement producing countries, it has an unbroken record of 7-8 per cent annual growth over the past two decades, a growth which is likely to be maintained in the new century. In deed, the production levels are likely to double every 10 years reaching 200 million tonnes in the next decade, making India the second largest producer of quality cement in the world. Lately, the industry's emphasis has been on putting up new capacities with modern dry technology side by side with modernising the existing plants to make them efficient in terms of fuel and energy consumption, environmental management, etc. Industry's Energy Profile - Case for Energy Efficiency Cement industry is highly energy intensive. The main fuels used are coal and lignite. A few plants use agricultural residues lil<e groundnut shell, rice husks, etc. to a certain extent in the precalciner. Some use furnace oil and diesel in diesel generators (DG) for generating captive power. Yet others have installed coal-based thermal power plants for meeting their power requirements. The energy cost as percentage o f the total manufacturing cost was 20-25 per cent in 1980s but it is now at about 40 per cen t. This is mainly due to the increase in energy prices over the years. Hence the major area for cost reduction, higher productivity and better competitiveness in Indian cement industry is energy conservation. With the ever mounting fuel prices and power tariffs, the need to conserve energy can not be overemphasised. Figure I gives the components of cement manufacturing cost as on date fig I Components of Cement Manufacturing Cost 11 Reducing energy costs Since energy accounts for 40 per cent of the total cost, there exists considerable scope for reducing it. Indeed, the industry is ceaselessly striving for improved process technologies which has become imperative in the current competitive environment which will only become increasingly fierce in future. As a result, inefficient plants will have to be closed down making way for modern energy efficient and eco-friendly units, which can successfully contend with world class plants elsewhere. At another plane, a considerable scope exists for reduction of energy cost per se. For instance, cost of electric power in India is two to three times higher than international costs. Even captive power generation, vvhich has steadily grown from a trickle to cover more than 30 per cent of cement production, costs far below grid power, which , besides being unreliable, suffers from fluctuations. Energy Conservation Drive The rising costs of energy inputs, viz. coal and power. have spurred Indian cement industry to initiate such varied measures as : Retrofitting energy efficient equipment/systems Technology upgradation Process optimisation Effective maintenance management and energy management including energy monitoring and energy audit. The Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA), for its part, has set up the Energy Task Force and the Environmental Task Force under its Technical Committee to study and advise on schemes for energy conservation and environmental improvement in the industry. Accordingly, the Environmental Task Force has taken up the evaluation of the Kalina cycle for waste heat recovery and reduction of greenhouse gases among a few other technologies that are being adopted elsewhere in the world.