The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, visited Cemex cement plant in Alcanar, Tarragona on July 25th. This plant will receive a government grant of 3 million euros through the PERTE for Industrial Decarbonization within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
PERTE (Strategic projects for economic recovery and transformation) are strategic projects with a great capacity to drive economic growth, employment and the competitiveness of the economy in Spain, with a high component of public-private collaboration and transversal to the different administrations.
Cemex presented to the call of the Ministry an innovative driving project for the decarbonization of the clinker manufacturing process by increasing the use of Solid recovered fuels (SRFs) compared to the consumption of fossil fuels, thus reducing CO₂ emissions in the industrial process. The project includes a pretreatment facility for the SRF to reduce its size and humidity, increasing its calorific value and achieving an increase in the efficiency of the co-processing or energy recovery of the waste.
The ministry visit was hosted by Benjamín Cabrera, Director of Operations and Techniques at Cemex in Spain, Juan Carlos Sánchez, Plant Director, Antonio Cases, Corporate Affairs Director for Spain, and a delegation from the Cemex project team. Other guests were the Government Subdelegate in Tarragona, Santiago Castellà, and Marc Chavalera the Economy Councilor of the City. Together they toured the plant’s facilities and they were able to see first-hand how the project works, as well as the details of the decarbonization projects framed in Cemex’s climate neutrality roadmap, Future in Action.
During the visit, the minister expressed his gratitude to Cemex and to the entire cement industry, for all the efforts that they are implementing for decarbonization policies with projects such as the Alcanar plant project that is going to be launched and that will reduce more than 33,000 tons per year. Spain is in the process of modernization, using new energies looking for greater productive efficiency to decarbonize and to ensure the present and future of this very important industry.
This is a pioneering project that is aiming to continue moving forward to the decarbonization of the industry. The driving project that was presented to the PERTE decarbonization call includes two main projects that are scheduled to be launched by 2025. The first project will accomplish a consumption of up to 60% of alternative fuels through the efficient recovery of waste that otherwise will end up in the landfill. This will reduce the use of fossil fuels by 35%, achieving a reduction in emissions of 33,711 tons of CO₂ per year. The second project will increase energy efficiency in the production of compressed air, achieving energy savings of 25% and a reduction in emissions of 335 tons of CO₂ per year. By centralizing the production of compressed air at the plant in a single spot, 14 existing compressors will be replaced by only two, more powerful and more efficient compressors that will be interconnected with each other. This will accomplish energy savings of 2,143.6 MWh per year.
The Director of Operations and Technology at Cemex talked about how this technology will expand the possibilities of using waste in the cement industry and at the same time increase the substitution of fossil fuels. The project will also contribute to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, guaranteeing a stable process and high-quality production. This strategy may become a critical component in Cemex’s transition towards a low-carbon economy and potentially for the cement industry on a global scale. This project can also be replicated in other Cemex cement plants in Europe and other continents where they operate.
Source: https://infocemento.com/
