Cement, Energy & Environment

CMA ACTIVITIES ON THE TECHNICAL FRONT Last two Quarters (April - September 2013) have seen further activities in following up the decisions taken by the CMA Technical Committee in its 56th (NCB Ballabgarh, 5th April 2013) and sih (Chennai, 5th July 2013) Meetings alongwith its Environmental & Energy Task Forces, right from restoring our age-old professional engagements with NCB to address the emerging Cement Standards to tackling a tougher emissions norm being finalised by MoEF now apart from addressing the fuel security concerns of the industry. The broad outcome thus arrived at with our continuous efforts is summarised as under: BIS ISSUES CMA is currently consi dering NCB project proposa ls for undertaking Studies on Preparation and Evaluation of Portland Limestone Cement( PLC) Blend, Performance Improvers in Portland Pozzolana Cement(PPC) & Portland Slag Cement(PSC), and Testing of Cement at Fixed Normal Consistency (Water:Cement Ratio}, as desired by BIS. Meanwhile, as reported in the Jui -Sep 2012 issue of "Cement, Energy and Environment" on the Revision/ Revised Limits of S0 3 in the Indian Standards for OPC, IS: 8112 being printed, the same has since been pri nted and published. Also, we circu lated the information on the said Revision to the Members. As per the Revision, the Chemica l parameter of % S0 3 , Max, given as '3' in IS 8112:1989 has been increased to '3.5', which Revision now stands effect ive as published in IS 8112:2013. With th is a long-standing demand and the follow-up pursuit for long by the Indian Cement Industry have been fulfilled . Also effected in IS 8112:2013 are three more changes, namely, (i) % Insoluble Residue with Limestone/ Fly Ash as Performance Improvers, Max, revised to '4', (ii) % Alkali Content as Na 2 0, Max, simply reproduced as '0.6' from the early Version, and (iii) Max Compressive Strength (MPa}, 28 Days, fixed at '58' in place of ' No Specification' in the earlier Version , i.e. IS 8112:1989. BEE's PAT SCHEME Pursuant to identification of the various parameters finalised by the BEE Sub-Technical Committee of Normalization towards implementation of the PAT Scheme for the Cement Sector during the First Cycle of the scheme (2012-2015}, the BEE Technical Committee (Cement Sector) subsequently endorsed the Sub-Committee's recommenda– tions in its meeting on 24th July, 2013 to consider the impact of the parameters such as Capacity Utilization, Plant Load Factor, Effect of using Pet Coke, Product Mix, Power Mix (Import/ Export of Power}, Clinker Import/ Export, Non-availability of Bio-Mass, and Coal Quality, etc. Specific recommendations of the BEE Technical Committee in this regard are now under consideration of BEE for taking further steps towards its circulation to the Designated Consumers (DC's) for implementation in the cement sector. INITIATIVES FOR INCREASING THERMAL SUBSTITUTION RATE (TSR) IN INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY Since last reporting, the International Conference on "Enhanced Usage of Alternate Fuels & Raw Materials (AFR)- Co-Processing in Cement Plants" was successfully organized jointly by Cement Manufacturers' Association of India (CMA) & Institute for Industria l Productivity (IIP)-Washington DC in New Delhi during 7- 8 August 2013, to share the findings of the liP- CMA study outcome of the study carried out on developing an Action Plan