From Wet to Dry in Latvia

Cemex’s new plant in Broceni, Latvia, which is located close to the old one, will be capable of producing 1.1 million tpa of clinker and 1.6 million tpa of cement. Since its entry into Latvia, Cemex has invested some €250 million in the new plant and in ready-mix operations, infrastructure projects and raw materials plants, making it the largest industrial investor in the country since gaining independence. Once the new plant has been fully commissioned, the old plant will be closed, save for the packing station, which will continue to serve the new plant.

The company is still using the old plant while the new one is being finalised, but even after commissioning, all bagged products will continue to be packed and distributed from the old plant. In addition, two mills will be kept on standby there.

In the construction of the new plant, the company has applied the most modern purification systems and heat consumption will be reduced by 50%. Cemex is working towards 75 - 80% alternative fuel use over the next three years.

Cemex owns limestone and clay quarries. The limestone quarry is located at Kumas, about 30 km from the plant, while the clay quarry lies about 5 km away. Primary crushing of the limestone takes place in the quarry in a 550 tph capacity mobile impact crusher. It can accept rocks up to 1000 mm and reduce them to a maximum of 100 mm. The crushed limestone is initially stored in a 23 000 t semicircular pile in the quarry, from which a front-end loader transfers the material onto 26 t capacity trucks that carry it into the plant. Excavation of the wet clay is executed by a backhoe excavator and, again, 26 t dumper trucks then transport the material into the plant.

Other additives that make up the raw meal include silica sand that is brought in from deposits some 9 km from the plant, and iron carrier supplied as mill scale from the Liepajas Steelworks situated 100 km west of Broceni.

At present, the main fuel is coal, however, Cemex is currently installing facilities for storing and handling AFs and it will be commissioning these during the first quarter of this year. The equipment is designed to handle RDF and used tyres and in the future will represent 75% of heat consumption. A KHD/FLSmidth bypass system will reduce alkalis and chloride internally and will be capable of handling up to 15% of gases. The single stage IKN Pendulum cooler operates with a cylinder drive located beneath the KIDS arrangement. The cooler is equipped with a roll crusher and a water injection system at the cold end. The grate area is sized for a clinker output temperature of 95 °C above ambient, and the exhaust gases are dedusted by passing through four cyclones and cooled by an air-air heat exchanger. Clinker is transported to storage by an Aumund pan conveyor. The 100 000 t capacity clinker storage dome was supplied by Dome Technology. A Loesche LM 53.3+3 mill with a high efficiency classifier has been installed for cement milling and is also equipped with a hot gas generator (9.5 MW). There are two cement silos, each of 7500 t capacity, located close to the old plant to enable dispatch by truck or by railway wagons.

For the full article, please see the January issue of WORLD CEMENT. Available for subscribers to download now.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/12022010/from_wet_to_dry_in_latvia/