with 1.25 million tonnes of clinker capacity per year. Kiln 5 is a four-stage pre-heater kiln and is highly energy efficient compared to the earlier wet process kilns. While this kiln has now been operating for over 30 years, Meyer explains that a number of upgrades have been carried out over this period.
“ One of the reasons we have managed to improve our energy consumption by 30 % since 2000 is that we have invested a lot of capital in improving and modernising this kiln. This is not an original model; it is actually closer to the modern kilns than people think,” explains Meyer.
The upgrades include installation of a raw mill separator, which improves both energy efficiency and production rates, as well as upgrades of the cascade fan and clinker cooler, which also contribute to efficiency and improve capacity. The packers and palletisers have also been replaced through the years, and bag filter added to reduce kiln dust emissions.
Recently, a separator was installed on one of the plant’ s two cement mills, which further reduces energy consumption and improves capacity. Currently, the plant can produce 4 000 tonnes of clinker and 7 000 tonnes of cement per day. Further planned upgrades will increase daily clinker production capacity by an additional 750 tonnes, to 4 750 tonnes per day.
The original plant was demolished a few years ago and the area rehabilitated.
Key milestones
1934 |
Anglovaal Cement Company founded and listed on the JSE |
1936 |
Union Lime Company( Ulco) established to produce lime |
1937 |
Merger with Atlas Cement; name changed to Anglo-Alpha Cement |
1949 |
Cement production starts at Ulco – Kilns 1 & 2( wet process kilns): 250 000tpa |
1964 |
Commissioning of Cement Kilns 3 & 4( wet process kilns): 350 000tpa |
1984 |
Commissioning of Cement Kiln 5( pre-calciner dry process): 1 250 000tpa |
1984 – 2017
Capacity and efficiency upgrades, including:
• Raw mill separator
• Kiln cascade fan
• Kiln clinker cooler
• Packers and palletisers
• Bag filter
• Cement Mill 6 separator
2013 Ulco receives Clean Air Award from National Association for Clean Air( NACA).
1
Reduced energy consumption
Energy is one of the largest cost drivers in South Africa’ s cement industry, with Eskom’ s tariffs having risen by over 300 % from 2007 to 2015. According to Meyer, energy accounts for almost 40 % of all cash costs related to the manufacturing of AfriSam’ s products.“ Electricity used to be a relatively insignificant cost, but over the past 10 years it has become the single most expensive cash cost item to manufacture cement,” he says.
This is why AfriSam has been focusing on decreasing its energy consumption since 2000. Not only do the company’ s energy efficiency initiatives reduce its carbon footprint, they also make good business sense.“ AfriSam is currently one of the‘ greenest’ cement companies in South Africa, not only because we want to be known as the green company, but because it helps us to reduce our energy consumption and thus our costs,” Meyer explains.
2
1. AfriSam’ s Ulco cement plant can produce over 7 000 tonnes of cement per day.
2. Ulco’ s Kiln 5 has an annual production capacity of 1 250 000 tonnes.
16 _ QUARRY SA | NOVEMBER 2017