Cemex’s alternative fuels program

Cemex - as part of their sustainability goals - are continuously searching for methods of meeting the demands of a growing urban society without endangering the status of the planet. The company’s alternative fuels program has a major role in such sustainable manufacturing objectives.

Cemex has placed itself as a leading user of alternative fuels in the cement industry. This has been achieved through replacement of traditional fuels with lower carbon emission alternatives. Cemex also utilises carbon neutral options, such as biomass residues. In 2014, 94% of Cemex cement plants processed alternative fuels, avoiding the use of 2.2 million t of coal.

Cemex’s waste to fuel scheme demonstrates how the company applies the most effective ideas across all parts of the business. Cemex are upgrading production lines at less developed plants to bring them in line with the most advanced plant examples. This development is founded upon the technological and operational success of such advanced plants.

In 2013, Cemex began an association with the Earth Engineering Centre of Columbia University and The City College of New York to perform a yearlong study of the life-cycle effects of alternative fuels in cement manufacturing. The study centred upon Cemex’s waste combustion technologies and included visits to cement plants in the US and Mexico together with analysis of operating data. The study was completed in 2014, and concluded that the use of fuels derived from municipal solid wastes (MSW) in cement production has no negative impact on the cement production process or the quality of the product. The use actually decreases greenhouse gas emissions by up to three t of CO2 per t of MSW-derived fuel used in place of a high-quality coal.

Cemex also dispose of the waste generated by our production processes in accordance to local regulations and monitor, minimise, reuse it in production and recycle all of our wastes when possible.

Edited from source by Joseph Green. Source: Cemex

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/asia-pacific-rim/08062015/cemex-alternative-fuels-program-968/