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WA S T E H E AT REC OV E RY
WHICH WAY FOR YOUR WASTE HEAT? There are more ways to use waste heat than a power plant – and most of them are closer than you think.
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CONTENTS
03 Comment 05 News
REGIONAL REPORT: MENA 12 Capacity, Growth, & Competitive Transformation Amr Nader, A3&Co., provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing cement producers in the MENA region and explores the need to place decarbonisation at the heart of the operating model.
56 From Reactive To Predictive John Brown, IAC, explores how IoT diagnostics are changing baghouse reliability by monitoring common vulnerabilities, in order to respond to problems sooner rather than later.
63 Industrial Filtration Trade-off Tensions Keith Ogilvie and Michael Neate, Cleanova, demonstrate how a different engineering approach can deliver improved capacity without compromising other performance parameters.
WASTE HEAT RECOVERY 22 Every Kilojoule Counts Kiranmai Sanagavarapu, Fuller Technologies, explains how recovering waste heat does not have to mean a power plant, and how the bigger opportunity may be closer, cheaper, and already within reach.
GRINDING & MILLING 67 From Variables To Value Ana Esther Goncalves and Tim Nowack, Christian Pfeiffer, explore how ball mill process instability impacts cement quality and how considering crucial variables can lead to higher value optimisation.
27 Reliable Recovery Mirko Ferrari, Turboden, explains how large-scale ORC technology has evolved, making waste heat recovery one of the most valuable resources for the hard-to-abate cement industry.
GEARS, DRIVES, & MOTORS 73 Driving Gears With Data Cengiz Yilmaz, KISSsoft, explains how standardised data exchange enables engineers to reducing manual reconstruction efforts, improve consistency, and support more efficient design.
SILO DESIGN & MAINTENANCE 31 Engineering For Endurance Wen Peng and Zhu Xiaosheng, Henan SRON Silo Engineering Co. Ltd., discuss methods for stress analysis and structural design of large steel silos under complex loading conditions. 35 Silos Free, Free Flowin’ Clara Planque, STANDARD INDUSTRIE, discusses how remote, mechanical declogging can act as an alternative to confined-space entry in silos. 39 Crystal Clear Cleaning Andy Carnan, Mole•Master, uncovers how adding laser-based 3D asset scanning can give operators of enclosed dry bulk storage a way to see what’s happening within a vessel without ever putting a worker inside. DUST CONTROL & FILTRATION 44 A Breath Of Fresh Efficiency Jerad Heitzler, Martin Engineering, challenges the long-held industry belief that dust emissions in cement plants are inescapable, showing how tackling the root cause boosts worker morale, operational efficiency, and safety. 50 Defusing Dust Melisa Diaz and Richard Jones, Donaldson, explore how industrial filtration for combustible dust and ATEX environments can be a powerful ally for workforce protection and plant performance.
BAGGING & PACKAGING 79 Partnership Through Packing Performance Ed Ford and Leonardo Verniani, MAPEI Corporation, discuss the challenges associated with bag filling operations, the company’s longstanding collaboration with ARODO, and its plans to install a new packing system next year. VALVES & FLOW CONTROL 83 High Stakes, Low Pressure Matt Delpizzo, Delta Ducon, delves into the engineering physics behind rotary valve failure in abrasive environments and explains how the rapid deployment of extreme duty rotary valves for a critical situation stabilised a facility at short notice. SAMPLING & ANALYSIS 86 From Waste To Resource Retsch explores how sampling, analysis, and process development are advancing high-value concrete upcycling for the cement industry. 93 Strengthening Emissions Accounting With Carbon-14 Jessica Ballasi, SGS Beta, explains how Carbon-14 analysis is used to quantify emissions reductions and carbon removals.
November 2026
ON THE COVER Waste heat recovery doesn’t have to mean a power plant. This month’s cover explores the smaller-scale, lower-complexity wins available first – routing cooler vent air and preheater exhaust into drying, grinding, fuel prep and SCM processing – before committing to the CAPEX and operational burden of a full power plant. Drawing on Fuller Technologies’ work at Cementos PANAM’s Villa Gautier plant, the accompanying article (pg 22) shows how sequencing these opportunities first can cut gas consumption, lower emissions, and set up a more accurately sized power investment down the line.
WA S T E H E AT REC OV ERY
WHICH WAY FOR YOUR WASTE HEAT? There are more ways to use waste heat than a power plant – and most of them are closer than you think.
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COMMENT
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SUBSCRIPTIONS Annual subscription (published monthly): £180 UK. Claims for non receipt of issues must be made within 4 months of publication of the issue or they will not be honoured without charge. Applicable only to USA and Canada: WORLD CEMENT (ISSN No: 0263-6050, USPS No: 020-996) is published monthly by Palladian Publications, GBR and is distributed in the USA by Asendia USA, 17B S Middlesex Ave, Monroe NJ 08831. Periodicals postage paid Philadelphia, PA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to World Cement, 701C Ashland Ave, Folcroft PA 19032 Copyright © Palladian Publications Ltd 2026. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. All views expressed in this journal are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily the opinions of the publisher, neither do the publishers endorse any of the claims made in the articles or the advertisements. Uncaptioned images courtesy of Adobe Stock. Printed in the UK. Palladian Publications Ltd 15 South Street, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7QU, UK Tel +44 (0)1252 718999 Email: mail@worldcement.com Website: www.worldcement.com
November 2026 World Cement
T
DAVID BIZLEY, SENIOR EDITOR
he UK government’s Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, recently announced that UK citizens should stock up on 3-days’ worth of food and supplies in a bid to build up the nation’s resilience to natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other emergencies. Items featured on the ‘Be Ready’ checklist include non-perishable food, water, hygiene products, torches, batteries, radios, and so on. All sensible, reasonable stuff that has predictably led to the kind of panic buying last seen at the onset of the COVID lockdowns – with the price of wind-up radios, a somewhat obscure gadget in normal times, going through the roof. Thankfully, for now at least, my fellow Brits have largely avoided buying up every last piece of toilet paper (or anything that might serve as a substitute) as they did back in 2020 in what I can only assume was a bizarre nationwide misaprehension as to what the symptoms of COVID actually were… However, I have to raise my hand and admit to taking part in this current frenzy, having dutifully purchased some bottled water and a fancy wind-up radio (it even has a little solar panel). The thought of having to endure a nuclear apocalypse without being able to listen to Gardeners’ Question Time was really too much to bear. After all, exactly how much radiation can an azalea endure? Should I be concerned that my wisteria has sprouted limbs and wandered off? Anyway, Streeting’s announcement is a timely reminder that the world is rather more chaotic than it was only a few years ago; and it’s also a tacit admission that there’s not too much the UK government can do about it. The world’s supply routes, and the production lines that depend on them, have proven to be more vulnerable than most of us ever considered, in large part because the growing availability and capability of drones/UAVs means you don’t even need a navy to blockade a shipping lane. As JD Vance recently put it: energy prices “skyrocket every time some tin-pot dictator decides to throw a tantrum.” No further comment needed there. With all this in mind then, it is to be hoped that the government will take some of its own advice and make efforts to build up national resilience in these ‘interesting’ times. One way it could do this would be by ensuring that domestic foundational industries, like cement, are able to continue operating. I had the privilege of speaking at SKF’s Cement and Aggregates Industry Convention back in October where I explored how the cement industry will be key to the ambitions of any UK government that wishes to build for the future. Yet at the same time, UK producers face almost existential challenges from cripplingly high energy prices, growing competition from imports, and policymakers that don’t always fully grasp the importance of the sector to their own policy ambitions. Perhaps whilst we’re all stocking up on baked beans, batteries, and baby formula, policymakers could look at boosting the resilience of UK cement producers by readmitting them into the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation (EIIC) scheme? An early Christmas present perhaps? Here’s hoping. Anyway, I’m off to listen to the radio. 3
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NEWS
CIMPOR’s Alhandra plant enters the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest cement plant
CIMPOR’s Alhandra plant has been recognised by Guinness World Records™ as the world’s oldest cement plant in continuous production at the same location. With more than 130 years of operations, this distinction makes CIMPOR the only industrial company in Portugal to hold a Guinness World Records title and recognises the Alhandra plant’s ability to reinvent itself through successive economic, technological and industrial transformations. Since its foundation, the plant has adapted its processes and integrated new solutions to meet the demands of each era. Continuous investment in technology and innovation has enabled the operation to modernise, increase efficiency and keep the Alhandra plant at the forefront of the sector, while preserving its strong connection with the area where it was established. Today, the site employs more than 150 people and, with an annual cement production capacity of 2.8 million t, makes a significant contribution to the local economy, employment and Portugal’s industrial expertise. In response to challenges such as decarbonisation and resource efficiency, it has combined accumulated knowledge with new solutions to address the sector’s evolution. This international recognition is also a source of pride for Portugal, honouring an industrial site with more than 130 years of history that has preserved its legacy, kept pace with the sector’s evolution and helped showcase Portuguese industry internationally. People are at the heart of this longevity. The plant’s history has been built by several generations of employees and families, in a close relationship with the surrounding community that remains central to its identity. “This recognition celebrates much more than the longevity of a plant. It honours the ability of several generations to innovate, anticipate change and keep Alhandra at the forefront of the industry. It is this legacy, built by our people and through our close relationship with the community, that enables us to look to the future with ambition and continue working toward a more efficient and sustainable sector,” November 2026 World Cement
says Cevat Mert, CEO of CIMPOR Portugal and Cape Verde. The Guinness World Records title recognises a journey spanning more than 130 years, built by successive generations and defined by the ability to keep pace with the industry’s evolution. It is a legacy that CIMPOR will continue to carry into the future through innovation and a commitment to increasingly efficient and sustainable production.
PERGAM announces sale of CEM’IN’EU to Holcim CEM’IN’EU has built an independent cement business based on clinker grinding plants, which are lighter and closer to their markets than integrated cement works. Pergam Industry, managed by PERGAM and holding more than 90% of the company, has supported the design, construction and development of its three operating sites from the very beginning. The first plant, Aliénor Ciments in Tonneins, was inaugurated in October 2018. The second, Rhône Ciments in Portes-lès-Valence, came on stream in March 2021. Each site has an annual production capacity of 240 000 t of cement. Maritime logistics are handled from the port of Sète by its subsidiary, Cem’In’Log. Between 2021 and 2025, CEM’IN’EU nearly doubled its volumes to almost 480 000 t of cement sold, and became profitable in 2023, just two years after its second plant came on stream. In 2025, both sites ran at full capacity. Since 2023, CEM’IN’EU has been producing a pozzolan-based low-carbon cement at its Rhône Ciments site. CEM’IN’EU has turned logistics into a driver of innovation. Clinker delivered by sea to the port of Sète is carried in containers by rail to the plants, avoiding nearly 12 000 truck journeys a year. The company has also successfully developed a moisture-proof bag made from recycled and recyclable polyethylene, which protects the cement from humidity. It is the only producer in France to use this type of bag. “We are proud to have contributed to the emergence of an alternative industrial model in this sector. CEM’IN’EU has demonstrated the relevance of lighter production units located closer to their markets. Lafarge-Holcim has all the industrial and financial strengths needed to 5
DIARY
NEWS
AUCBM AICCE29 23 – 25 November, 2026 Cairo, Egypt www.aucbm.net TÜRKÇİMENTO 01 – 05 December, 2026 Antalya, Turkey https://teknikseminer.com.tr Carbon Capture Technology Expo North America 10 – 11 February, 2027 Houston, USA www.ccus-expo.com
07 – 10 March, Madrid, Spain www.worldcement.com/envirotech Hannover Messe 05 – 08 April, 2027 Hannover, Germany www.hannovermesse.de IEEE-IAS/ACA Cement Conference 08 – 11 April, 2027 Sacramento, USA www.cementconference.org ACHEMA 2027 14 – 18 June, 2027 Frankfurt, Germany www.achema.de 6
support the next stages of its development,” said Olivier Combastet, Chairman and Founder of Pergam.
Sinoma EC’s gas turbine WHR power project in Ghana successfully connected to grid Recently, the gas turbine waste heat recovery power generation project at the Wassa site in Ghana achieved successful one-off grid connection, marking a milestone breakthrough for Sinoma Energy Conservation Ltd. As the company’s first project in West Africa and its inaugural cooperation with Ghana’s Genser Energy, the successful grid connection lays a solid foundation for stable power supply and low-carbon green development in local regions, fully demonstrating Sinoma EC’s outstanding technical strength and robust project execution capabilities in overseas markets. Adopting an efficient gas-steam combined cycle power generation process, the project builds a supporting waste heat recovery system based on existing gas turbine generator units. It recycles high-temperature flue gas generated by gas turbine power generation, produces steam through heat exchange in waste heat boilers, and drives turbo-generator sets for secondary power generation. This innovative model abandons the traditional single energy consumption mode with direct waste heat emission, realising cascaded energy utilisation, waste-to-energy conversion and greatly improved comprehensive energy efficiency of the power station. Compared with conventional single gas turbine power generation, the system achieves remarkable advantages. It recycles waste flue gas heat without additional fuel consumption or new exhaust emissions. It effectively increases total power generation, reduces power consumption per unit and carbon emissions, delivering excellent economic and ecological benefits. Moreover, the newly connected units supplement regional power supply, optimise the power supply structure, enhance grid stability and peak regulation capacity, and ease power shortages for local industrial production and residents’ daily lives. Facing complex overseas construction conditions, long material transportation cycles and difficult cross-border technical coordination, the project team strictly followed international and local construction standards. Through meticulous full-process construction and commissioning, the team overcame various challenges and achieved one-off successful grid connection with all operational indicators meeting standards. Going forward, the Chirano and Edikan sites will soon commence power generation. Sinoma EC will also launch a ten-year long-term operation and maintenance service, ensuring the long-term safe, stable and efficient operation of the system, and continuously empowering Ghana’s green energy transformation and economic and social development. World Cement November 2026
NEWS
Fortera and MLC select Ste. Genevieve, for first commercial CO2-to-cement plant
Fortera and MLC plan to build Fortera’s first commercial low-carbon cement plant at MLC’s Ste. Genevieve site. The plant would capture CO2 emitted by MLC’s lime production and transform it into a reactive cement that is nearly 50% captured CO2 by weight. The Ste. Genevieve operation was selected due to its scale and strategic location. Situated in the Central Midwest on the Mississippi River, the site enables economical delivery across most of the U.S. and internationally. Adding domestic cement supply also reduces US reliance on foreign imports, which account for 21% of consumption, according to the 2025 US Geological Survey. ReAct cement is one of the most consequential cement innovations in generations, introducing a fundamentally new way to manufacture an essential building material that meets or exceeds traditional cement’s performance. By transforming captured CO2 from lime production into value-added cement, this project offers an approach to reduce the carbon footprint of two critical, hard-to-abate industries. Cement accounts for 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (according to the U.S. Department of Energy), so innovations have the potential to meaningfully impact global climate change. “The Ste. Genevieve plant marks a new era for American cement production, one where technology turns emissions into a high-quality product the market needs while creating lasting local jobs” said Ryan Gilliam, CEO and co-founder of Fortera. “Building alongside the largest lime operation in the Americas lets us turn an existing emissions stream into hundreds of thousands of tons of cement to meet demand that already exists.” This project is also significant for the lime industry because it provides a scalable solution to capture and re-use CO2 released by limestone during calcination, which generates roughly 60% of scope-1 emissions. The National Lime Association (NLA) aims to decarbonise the 8
U.S. lime industry by 2050; meeting that goal requires innovation in low carbon technologies. “While MLC has reduced our carbon footprint by 8% since 2022, and I am proud of that progress, current technologies will only take us so far. Lime producers need practical solutions to capture calcination emissions,” said Paul Hogan, CEO of MLC and current serving president of the NLA. “Fortera has developed an innovative approach that not only reduces the amount of carbon we release – it also turns it into a valuable product.” The cement manufactured at the Ste. Genevieve plant is planned to be used across the Midwest, including by Ozinga, a fifth-generation, family-owned concrete and building materials company. “Scaling the next generation of cement requires more than innovative technology; it requires strong partnerships across our industry,” said Marty Ozinga, CEO of Ozinga. “Fortera’s ongoing work with Ozinga represents the kind of collaboration needed to bring lower-carbon cement solutions to commercial scale while strengthening domestic manufacturing and ensuring we can continue to deliver the performance and reliability our customers expect.”
Holcim: Double-digit organic growth in recurring EBIT of 11.8% Miljan Gutovic, CEO: “I thank all of our 50 000 employees worldwide for their contributions to our strong results in the first nine months of the year. Together, we continue to deliver on our NextGen Growth 2030 strategy with discipline and at a fast pace.” Net sales of CHF12 586 million in the first nine months were up 5.2% organically compared to the same period in the prior year. In the third quarter, net sales increased 15.5% in CHF. Nine-month recurring EBIT grew 11.8% organically to CHF2414 million versus the prior-year period. In the third quarter, recurring EBIT increased 16.8% in CHF. Holcim reported a 10 basis point increase in recurring EBIT margin for nine months to 19.2%, with positive momentum in the third quarter driving the year-to-date margin expansion. World Cement November 2026
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12
Amr Nader, A3&Co., provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities facing cement producers in the MENA region and explores the need to place decarbonisation at the heart of the operating model. ENA’s cement challenge is not simply how much capacity it has built. It is how much of that capacity can remain competitive as demand, energy costs, material portfolios, and market access change. A kiln can run at a high rate, while its company earns an inadequate return: Yamama sold more cement in 2025 at lower prices and its operating profit fell. Conversely, Arabian Cement’s revenue rose 43%, while its combined cement and clinker volume fell 4%. A lower-clinker product portfolio points the same way, reducing kiln output while improving the economics of the business. This changes the question for boards and policymakers. Which assets should be improved, which products should be developed, which resources
13
must be secured, and which investments can deliver a verified return? Market growth alone does not answer those questions. Neither does a nameplate-capacity total. ‘Reduce Carbon While Reducing Cost’ is an approach from A3&Co. that is designed to connect these decisions. It starts with the physical plant and the market it serves, then tests operational excellence, energy and material efficiency, resource recovery, and digital maturity as parts of one business model. Measures that cannot yet deliver both outcomes are assessed transparently for the finance, infrastructure or market conditions they require. The objective is not to keep every kiln full. It is to build a competitive and accountable industrial transition. The competitive test for exporters is no longer the ex-works price. It is the delivered, verified, carbon-accounted tonne, and the cash it generates.
One regional baseline
The A3&Co. census covers fifteen selected markets from Morocco to Oman and carries 161 operator records for cement and clinker producers, from the 14 state subsidiaries of Algeria’s GICA to the 27 operators of the UAE, many of them grinding stations. An operator record is a legal producer, not a plant or an ultimate owner. Summed across the 15 markets, installed cement capacity falls between 408 and 418 Mt/yr. The figures are estimates built from national data, with import terminals excluded. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq hold the largest fleets, with roughly 90 – 95, and 87 and 50 Mt/yr respectively. Domestic demand or sales for 2025 is available for 11 markets and totals 218 – 225 Mt. Adding Kuwait at its 2024 consumption of 5.7 Mt gives 224 – 231 Mt,
and an allowance of about 10 – 14 Mt for Qatar, Libya, and Bahrain, where no figure was found, gives roughly 235 – 245 Mt. The 170 – 180 Mt difference from 415 Mt is a nameplate-versus-demand gap; in the eleven markets with a 2025 figure it is 150 – 165 Mt. Saleable surplus depends on available capacity, production, stocks, specification and freight. Holcim remains in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq and the UAE; Heidelberg Materials holds Morocco and Egypt; UltraTech runs a grinding network across the UAE and Bahrain; and state groups still control the largest single fleets.
Material efficiency and the fleet
Excess capacity is usually treated as a market problem and clinker substitution as a decarbonisation measure. They belong in one model. As an illustration, a country producing 50 Mt of cement a year needs 40 Mt of clinker at a clinker factor of 80% and 32.5 Mt at 65%: At unchanged cement output, clinker demand falls by 7.5 Mt, or 18.75%. A successful lower-clinker transition can therefore improve product economics while reducing the operation some kilns require. The objective is a profitable, reliable, lower-carbon portfolio of assets and products, with demand growth, clinker exports, and stock changes modelled separately. The technical chain runs from raw-mix control through burnability, clinker mineralogy and reactivity, and grinding and formulation to concrete performance, and, finally, to saleable value and margin. It is a diagnostic: Lower clinker content is no gain if the product fails its standard, grinding energy outweighs the savings or customers decline it. Calcined clays and slags cut the clinker factor only where mineralogy, processing energy, standards, and concrete performance support the case, and a resource counts
Figure 1. Cement capacity by country and the main site of each of the 153 mapped operator records (of 161; eight have no mapped location). Pins are sized by operator capacity, so a multi-plant operator appears once; fill shows control and a ring a listed company. Pins are town-level and approximate. 14
World Cement November 2026
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only when it can be secured, qualified, and delivered consistently. Thermal substitution measures an energy share; moisture, ash, contaminants, bypass losses, and the fossil and biogenic split decide the CO2 result. Each asset then faces a portfolio decision: Operate and improve, selectively modernise, supply with purchased clinker, repurpose, mothball, or retire. Rehabilitation is compared with the alternatives on remaining life, energy, reliability, quality, maintenance capital, compliance, resource access, and delivered economics, so that the existing asset is tested before a new one is committed. Figure 3 sets out the five tests and the evidence each requires.
Where volume, margin, and cash diverge Egypt Arabian Cement Company’s FY2025 investor presentation puts the Egyptian market’s domestic cement sales at approximately 53.99 Mt, cement exports at 11.06 Mt and clinker exports at 7.57 Mt. Domestic cement sales and cement exports therefore total approximately 65.06 Mt, matching the roughly 65 Mt earlier reported as 2025 production, which is therefore best read as cement sales. At company level, Arabian Cement illustrates why volume alone does not explain performance: Its revenue rose 43% to EGP12.32 billion while combined cement and clinker sales volume declined 4%, with EBITDA reaching EGP4.99 billion; first-quarter 2026 EBITDA was EGP1.26 billion, up 42%. Not every producer shared the recovery: Sinai Cement’s FY2025 net profit fell 25%. Capacity is contested: 75.5 Mt officially (September 2026), 78 – 79 Mt nominal, about 87 Mt by plant nameplate and 85 – 90 Mt effective, which against 65.06 Mt of Egyptian cement sales give
72 – 86% (Figure 4). Exports fell 25% in the first half of 2026 under a reported 30% export cap, up to 9 idle lines are targeted for restart, and gas for the cement industry was reported repriced to US$14/MMBtu in May 2026, with an impact that varies by kiln, contract and substitute fuel. The recovery coincided with the reported May 2025 abolition of production quotas and with changes in fuel, mix, and prices. The board’s question is durability: Separating price and mix effects from productivity, fuel exposure, working capital, and non-recurring items. Saudi Arabia Yamama Cement’s 2025 results show volume, operating profit and headline profit separating: revenue rose 21.3% on higher volumes and lower average prices, operating profit fell 6.7% and net profit rose 14.8%, helped by proceeds from old-factory equipment sales. Almost every Saudi issuer reported lower realised prices, total 2025 sales reached 56.2 Mt (up 10%) and clinker inventories climbed to 45.9 Mt by August 2026, a stock best measured against clinker requirements. Clinker exports rose 35% to 6.05 Mt while cement exports fell 16% to 1.67 Mt, and producers disclosed cost increases of 6 – 14% after Aramco raised diesel to SAR1.79 per litre. New lines mostly replace older kilns: Yamama reported a relocated 12 500 tpd line in commercial operation on 1 July 2026 and Eastern Province Cement a 10 000 tpd line completed in April. Consolidation is a choice. Qassim Cement absorbed Hail Cement in June 2024, while City Cement disclosed on 1 January 2026 that it would not proceed with the Umm Al Qura acquisition and would pursue other investment paths. A new line or acquisition needs an explicit purpose and a comparison with improving an existing asset, qualifying a new product or retaining capital.
Figure 2. Diagnostic chain from raw mix to margin. It locates where value is gained or lost along the route; it does not guarantee that each link delivers.
Figure 3. Asset decision matrix: the question and the evidence required for each test. No ranking is implied. 16
World Cement November 2026
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AICCE
Morocco Five integrated producers hold about 24.6 Mt/yr, and 2025 deliveries reached 14.8 Mt, up 8.2%. Ciments du Maroc completed its acquisition of Asment de Témara on 30 June 2025, adding a cement plant, 8 ready-mix plants, 2 aggregates sites, and an indirect waste-preprocessing interest.13 Its first-half 2026 operating revenue of MAD2.661 billion was 21.4% above the figure published a year prior, but 6.0% below a pro-forma comparison, including the acquired business, while financial debt fell to MAD1.833 billion. The perimeter effect matters: Integration is judged on comparable performance and cash conversion.
Ownership is changing faster than capacity. Huaxin took 59.58% of Oman Cement in April 2023, and cement sales at Rusayl run near 94% of capacity; Buzzi acquired about 64% of Gulf Cement in May 2025. EMSTEEL describes its May 2025 Al Ain pilot, which used 10 000 t of steel-slag-containing materials as raw material for clinker and cement, as the first industrial-scale use of decarbonised cement in the region; the announcement gives no carbon result. The investment case starts with the business model: An integrated plant, a grinder on purchased clinker and an import terminal carry different exposures, and a terminal adds handling, not manufacturing capacity.
Algeria and Tunisia About 40 Mt/yr of Algerian capacity serves an estimated 21 – 25 Mt of domestic consumption, and the industry ships about 10 Mt a year, part of it being clinker to Europe. In October 2025, the Chlef plant’s chief executive reported nearly 2 Mt of clinker exported to Europe so far that year. Carthage Cement reported 2025 export volumes up 73%, domestic cement volumes down 19%, and revenue down 9.2%. More tonnes abroad do not automatically repair the economics of fewer tonnes at home: The test is the contribution left after quality, logistics, and carbon costs, then collection risk and capital tied up in the trade.
Reconstruction markets The Levant and Iraq carry the region’s largest hopes and its least bankable numbers. The World Bank’s October 2025 conservative best estimate of Syria’s physical reconstruction cost is US$216 billion, within a range of US$140 – 345 billion. That measures need, not funding or an annual cement programme; it becomes demand through funded projects, execution schedules and product requirements. Adra resumed grinding in 2025 on imported Saudi clinker and Aleppo’s Ar Ramouseh mills restarted in March 2026, while Hama’s line 3 has an announced target of 3300 to 5000 tpd of clinker within 13 months of an October 2025 memorandum. Iraq has about 50 Mt/yr of installed capacity against 25 Mt of demand, with new lines from Dabin, NAS and VAN in 2025, and Lucky Cement’s 1.82 Mt/yr clinker line at Samawah. Lebanon’s 3.0 Mt of 2025 deliveries equal about 45% of nameplate, and Libya runs four of its 10 kiln lines. The screen for these markets is plant availability, fuel, and power access, logistics, payment security and the timing of funded projects; rehabilitation is compared with replacement, conversion to grinding, imports, and staged expansion on lowest risk-adjusted lifecycle cost.
The Gulf Capacity runs far ahead of demand, but configurations differ. The UAE’s 38 – 41 Mt/yr serves a market of about 21 Mt. Kuwait’s 10.3 Mt/yr met 5.7 Mt of apparent consumption in 2024, and a reported 67.5% anti-dumping duty on Iranian cement and clinker was followed by higher local prices. Qatar National Cement stopped its clinker kilns in June 2024, sold about 1 Mt of cement in 2025, and reports restarting clinker output in 2026. Bahrain is largely import-fed.
Figure 4. Left: domestic demand or sales as a share of cement capacity, 2025. Right: Egypt on cement sales and Saudi Arabia on clinker production. Light extensions show the high end where inputs are ranges; the line marks 100%. 18
World Cement November 2026
Delivered competitiveness
The EU’s CBAM entered its definitive regime on 1 January 2026 and covers cement and clinker. EU importers, as authorised declarants, buy certificates for 2026 imports from February 2027, priced by the quarter of import: €75.36/t of CO2 for Q1, €75.28/t for Q2 and €82.32/t for Q3, the last published on 5 October. Exposure depends on product and destination, which national totals do not show: Algeria exports about 10 Mt a year, part of it clinker to Europe; Egypt exported about 18.6 Mt of cement and clinker in 2025; Saudi Arabia exported 6.05 Mt of clinker. Clinker carries the highest emissions per tonne and none of the grinding value added. Where verified installation-level emissions are unavailable, default values may determine the embedded emissions reported under CBAM, potentially weakening the carbon-cost advantage of a more efficient producer. A producer with verified emissions, a low clinker factor, and an alternative-fuel kiln can offer customers a smaller certificate bill. Delivered margin starts from the buyer’s price and deducts freight, cash production cost, and the carbon charge actually due under the CBAM rules. The bridge from market price to company value runs through realised revenue, cash production cost, product mix, outbound logistics, carbon costs actually borne, working capital, sustaining capital, and the return on incremental investment. It separates a temporary price benefit from a sustainable cost and product advantage. Maritime insecurity around the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea adds route risk to the same bridge; the safety of seafarers remains the starting point. A Cape of Good Hope diversion avoids the Red Sea but not Hormuz for cargo that must first leave the Gulf, so risk is assessed by loading port, destination, and route. Freight, insurance, longer voyages, and uncertain arrival dates can erase an ex-works advantage; delayed fuel, purchased clinker, gypsum, supplementary materials, or spares can disrupt production; and dry-bulk exposure is assessed apart from tankers. Longer replenishment cycles add inventory and delay receipts, which limits any pricing upside. Stress-test export margins, supplier lead times, alternative ports, and stock cover; a second supplier on the same route adds little diversification. Qualified local substitutes and fuels can reduce import dependence, but local sourcing does not guarantee lower emissions.
From strategy to implementation
The notion of ‘Reduce Carbon While Reducing Cost’ puts decarbonisation in the operating model, not in a separate sustainability workstream. It starts from a verified plant baseline that links country, company, and plant, then runs three gates in parallel, each with its own approval dependencies. The first covers improvements to current assets: stable kilns, reliable equipment, and efficient grinding. The second covers enabling supply chains and bounded projects, such November 2026 World Cement
as waste and alternative-fuel contracts, qualified supplementary materials, permits and renewable power; Ciments du Maroc’s first-half 2026 results tie cost control to photovoltaic plants at Aït Baha and Safi. The third covers major shared infrastructure, including carbon capture for residual process emissions, where infrastructure and financing are credible, without delaying measures that pay back sooner. Stable operations are the discipline of the first gate, not a reason to delay the other two. Each gate has an accountable owner, milestones, safety and quality checks, workforce competence, and verification of benefits: The Design-to-Implement route. Changed fuels, materials, or operating regimes need trained operators and laboratory teams, management of change, and environmental controls. Benefits are verified under equivalent conditions, separating intensity from absolute emissions and physical savings from price or mix effects, with no improvement counted twice; finance confirms realised cash effects and technical teams confirm sustained performance. Digital maturity is an execution capability. Reconciled laboratory, operating, maintenance, energy, inventory, dispatch, and financial data change decisions when they connect the physical tonne to its quality result, cost, carbon account, and cash outcome. Artificial intelligence is judged by a verified operating improvement in stability, consumption, and margin, not by the existence of a model or dashboard.
The board decision
The decision for a board is what to operate, improve, replace, repurpose, or retire, and what evidence must exist before capital is committed: A verified plant baseline, delivered economics on stated terms, a carbon account, secured and qualified material and fuel supply, and an accountable plan with finance, skills, and verification. For governments the same assets are judged on national industrial value as well as shareholder profit: Supply security, affordability for construction, waste-system development, energy and quarry-resource use, standards, investment competitiveness, employment and skills. Waste systems, standards, and procurement rules decide whether a promising plant measure becomes an investable market. MENA cement is neither a uniform boom nor a uniform glut. It is 15 markets converting different opportunities at different speeds. The producers that come through the next cycle will not simply own more capacity. They will deliver the right tonne to the right market, with less waste, less carbon, and a stronger return.
Note
References & sources available on request. 19
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Kiranmai Sanagavarapu, Fuller Technologies, explains how recovering waste heat does not have to mean a power plant, and how the bigger opportunity may be closer, cheaper, and already within reach. t Cementos PANAM’s Villa Gautier plant in the Dominican Republic, part of Grupo Estrella, hot air travels roughly 350 m from the clinker cooler to the finish mills. There, it does a job that was once done by a hot-gas generator. Today, that generator sits mostly idle, kept on standby for when the kiln itself is down. But for many in the industry, this is
not what WHR looks like – for starters, there is no megawatt-scale power plant. These waste-heat power plants, sized on the enthalpy leaving the preheater tower and the clinker cooler, are certainly one way – perhaps even the most recognised way – to use waste heat. But bolting on a power plant to a cement plant is not always realistic. Focusing on smaller-scale wins can be a much more
23
achievable pathway to using a resource that would otherwise go up the stack. In this context, framing the opportunity around thermal efficiency across the whole plant is more useful. Recovering heat well touches on drying, grinding, alternative fuel use, and SCM strategy – and requires an understanding of how these pieces interact. This whole-of-plant perspective can help unlock WHR opportunities, regardless of the specific plant circumstances.
The heat is on…
Two heat streams do most of the work: Exhaust gas leaving the preheater tower, and vent air leaving the clinker cooler. Preheater exhaust already handles most of a plant's raw meal drying; the opportunity is more about preventing it from being lost to inefficient cyclone staging or leakage. Cooler vent air is the more flexible resource. This heat can often be used directly elsewhere in the process. At Cementos PANAM in the Dominican Republic, for example, cooler vent air replaced the hot air previously supplied by gas-fired hot gas generators that were serving the plant's finish mills.
…So use it
At the Villa Gautier plant, cooler vent air (around 39 430 Nm3/h at the point of extraction) is drawn off at approximately 600˚C and tempered down to a maximum of 450˚C before travelling through roughly 349 m of common, insulated ducting (1250 mm diameter, 60 mm fibreglass wool) that splits toward two finish vertical roller mills (VRMs), 371 m to the first and 388 m to the second. By the time it reaches the VRMs, which process clinker, gypsum, pozzolana, and limestone, it has cooled to between 160 – 184˚C, still sufficient to provide the hot air required to dry the material and maintain stable VRM operation. Before the retrofit, gas-fired hot-gas generators burned natural gas or LPG at 350 – 450 kg/h to supply hot air and operated at close to 95% utilisation. Today, those
At Villa Gautier, recovered cooler vent air now does the drying work once done by gas-fired hot-gas generators, which run at just 16% utilisation. 24
same generators run only when the kiln is down for maintenance or when an occasional fault occurs. Their operational utilisation is now around 16%. The heat-recovery system should also be viewed as part of the plant’s broader development, rather than as an isolated modification serving only the original cement grinding circuits. As the Villa Gautier plant was subsequently expanded to approximately 3500 tpd, additional branches were incorporated into the overall heat-distribution arrangement, including approximately 119 m of ducting serving Cement Mill 3 and 156 m serving the raw mill. This broader integration extended the use of recovered process heat across the plant, with the raw mill no longer requiring LPG-fired hot gas following the modification. Across a series of measurements taken between October and December 2025, the system's actual heat delivery consistently approached or exceeded its contracted design target. Early measurements achieved performance in the low-to-mid 80% range, while several later readings reached 111 – 120% of the target value. The results confirmed that significant quantities of useful thermal energy could be transported over several hundred metres and still arrive at the mills at temperatures suitable for drying and grinding operations. “The implementation of this solution addressed the need to optimise production costs by reducing the consumption of gaseous fuels,” said Pedro de los Santos, Operations Manager at the Villa Gautier plant. “Additionally, it has contributed to reducing CO2 emissions, strengthening the plant's readiness to meet international standards and protocols for sustainability, emissions reduction, and the use of low-environmental-impact alternative fuels.” As an added benefit, the system recovers the dust using a high-efficiency cyclone, which removes around 90% of it before the gas reaches the mills. The recovered material is conveyed directly into the cement mills.
The order of operations
The question for most plants is not whether waste heat has value, but where to use that value most effectively. A waste-heat power plant is one answer, but it is not the only one. In addition to requiring significant CAPEX, power plants add an entirely new layer of operating complexity: A boiler, a turbine, a generator, the safety and control systems that accompany rotating turbomachinery, and the skilled operations and maintenance capability needed to keep it all running reliably. For many plants, that operational burden is a real barrier. It also requires the space to install a substantial industrial plant alongside the existing cement line. The Cementos PANAM experience highlights the opportunities for WHR that lie before the waste-heat power plant. Ducting, dampers, fans, and cyclones capture real, immediate savings without adding a new, complex asset to operate. Although these World Cement November 2026
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projects represent a genuine capital outlay, they are a fundamentally simpler category of investment than a power plant, with a correspondingly faster path to payback. There is also a sizing argument for sequencing. A waste-heat power plant is sized against an assumed heat surplus. Yet that surplus is not fixed. Higher SCM usage, greater alternative-fuel substitution, and additional drying requirements can all draw on the same thermal energy that might otherwise supply power generation. A power plant sized today could therefore become oversized and uneconomical if it does not account for those future heat demands. Sequencing a power investment after capturing lower-complexity opportunities reduces that risk and improves the sizing decision. A plant that is sizing a waste-heat power investment against an already-optimised heat balance is sizing against a real number, not a guess. SCM usage provides a useful example. As cement producers seek to lower clinker factors, they are turning to various SCMs. These materials are generally cheaper to process into cement than clinker is to produce. That saving only holds if a plant can process the SCM at the rate it wants to. Grinding and drying circuits have a fixed, moisture-sensitive throughput ceiling: Pushing higher-moisture SCMs through without additional drying heat and lost throughput eats the savings. Adding drying capacity with hot gas generators entails CAPEX and higher operating costs, again eating into those savings. Recovered heat routed into the grinding circuit removes that constraint at a much lower cost. In some scenarios, it can do double duty, giving the circuit headroom to absorb the moisture and reactivity variability that comes with SCM material sourced from different quarries and suppliers, without needing new dedicated drying capacity to cope with it. Using heat here, however, draws on exactly the surplus a future (or, indeed, existing) power plant needs. Alternative fuels introduce similar considerations. RDF, SRF, and biomass frequently arrive with higher and more variable moisture contents than conventional fossil fuels, increasing the importance of drying and fuel preparation. Waste heat can support these activities, reducing reliance on dedicated fuel-fired drying systems, while improving fuel quality
and calorific value. However, that heat must come from somewhere. A plant pushing for higher alternative-fuel substitution is simultaneously changing its overall heat balance, creating another competing demand on the thermal energy that might otherwise be used for power generation. None of this argues against waste-heat power generation per se. It is an argument for order: Capture the accessible, low-complexity value first, and take on the bigger commitment only if what remains justifies it. Doing that well across a whole plant's heat balance, rather than one project at a time, is the kind of whole-of-plant thinking this article opened with.
Paying (carbon) dividends
Although not framed as a decarbonisation project, the emissions case runs through it. Displacing a hot gas generator removes a fossil-fired combustion source outright. The Cementos PANAM account of its project points in the same direction: Cost optimisation – reducing gaseous fuel consumption – came first, with lower CO2 emissions and stronger sustainability credentials following as a direct result, not as the original driver. When it comes to SCMs and fuel substitution – recognised decarbonisation levers in their own right – better heat management can enable a plant to capture more of the potential without a large capital outlay. The upshot: Chasing thermal efficiency and lower OPEX drives down carbon emissions – a useful unlocking mechanism for lower-carbon cement production.
Knowledge is kilojoules
Treating waste heat as a resource to be sequenced and reused throughout the plant, rather than consumed in a single application, can deliver significant benefits. But only for plants that understand their heat balance and how process decisions affect it. The practical takeaway: Before deciding how to recover waste heat, first understand how it is already moving through the plant. A detailed heat-balance audit can reveal opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked, whether in grinding, material drying, fuel preparation, or power generation. For many operations, the greatest opportunity may not be generating electricity from waste heat, but putting that heat to work elsewhere in the process first.
About the author
An aerial view of the plant. 26
Kiranmai Sanagavarapu (Kiran) works on industrial decarbonisation, with experience spanning process engineering, product leadership, and commercial deployment in asset-intensive industries. Her work focuses on how existing industrial systems can be adapted to meet climate and sustainability goals without losing sight of operational and economic realities. She currently leads Fuller’s Decarbonisation Portfolio across multiple products and technologies. World Cement November 2026
Mirko Ferrari, Turboden, explains how large-scale ORC technology has evolved, making waste heat recovery one of the most valuable resources for the hard-to-abate cement industry.
he cement industry is facing pressure to improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and strengthen competitiveness in an increasingly challenging market environment. While alternative fuels, clinker substitution, electrification, and carbon capture technologies are all expected to contribute to the industry's long-term decarbonisation strategy, WHR remains one of the most mature, proven, and
27
immediately deployable solutions available today. Cement production inherently generates significant quantities of recoverable thermal energy, primarily through preheater exhaust gases and clinker cooler hot air streams. Traditionally, much of this thermal energy has been discharged into the atmosphere without being utilised. Modern WHR systems enable cement producers to convert this otherwise wasted energy into valuable electricity, improving overall plant efficiency, while reducing dependence on purchased power. Among the available WHR technologies, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems have experienced remarkable growth over the last fifteen years. Continuous technological advancements, increasing system efficiencies, and a growing focus on industrial sustainability have driven ORC technology from a niche solution to a mainstream option for cement producers worldwide.
From waste heat to competitive advantage
The business case for WHR is straightforward. Every megawatt generated from recovered process heat is a megawatt that does not need to be purchased from the grid or generated through conventional power generation technologies. Recovering waste heat not only produces electricity, but also reduces the energy and utilities that would otherwise be required to cool, handle, and treat the hot process gas streams before their discharge to the atmosphere. As a result, WHR improves the
overall energy efficiency of a cement plant, while simultaneously reducing operating costs and environmental impact. Depending on plant configuration and available thermal energy, a WHR system can typically provide up to 30% of a cement plant's electricity demand. In addition to reducing operating costs, on-site power generation improves energy resilience, lowers exposure to electricity price volatility, and contributes directly to the reduction of Scope 2 emissions. Unlike many renewable energy technologies that depend on weather conditions, WHR operates whenever clinker production is running. This results in exceptionally high yearly availability and energy generation, maximising the value of the investment throughout the entire lifecycle of the cement plant. For this reason, many cement producers increasingly view WHR not only as an environmental initiative, but also as a strategic energy asset.
The evolution of large-scale ORC technology
Historically, large WHR projects in the cement industry were almost exclusively associated with conventional Steam Rankine Cycle technology. However, significant developments in ORC technology have progressively expanded its application range, allowing ORC solutions to compete safely and effectively in power outputs that were once considered the exclusive domain of steam systems. Today, Turboden offers ORC solutions ranging from 500 kW to 40 MW of electrical output from a single turbine; a capability that demonstrates how far the technology has evolved from its traditional application areas. This evolution has enabled ORC systems to retain their well-known advantages, while addressing larger and more challenging projects. Among the most appreciated characteristics for cement producers are fully automated operation, reduced maintenance requirements, excellent part-load performance, high operational flexibility, and the possibility of completely water-free operation Detail of ORC ACC at the Riyadh Cement Company plant. through air-cooled condensers.
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World Cement November 2026
These features are becoming increasingly important as industrial operators seek technologies that are capable of delivering both environmental and economic benefits, without introducing additional operational complexity.
A proven technology for the cement industry
The growing adoption of ORC technology across the cement sector is evidence of its maturity and reliability. With almost two decades of experience in the cement sector, Turboden has become a benchmark supplier of ORC technology, with operating references across Europe, North Africa, Türkiye, and the Middle East. Turboden’s cement portfolio includes plants that are recovering heat from preheater exhaust gases, clinker cooler air streams, or both sources simultaneously. Installed power outputs range from approximately 1 MW to over 13 MW, covering a wide spectrum of plant sizes and operating conditions. The market momentum is particularly evident in recent years. Between 2024 and 2026, Turboden secured seven new projects exclusively within the cement industry, representing almost 40 MW of additional installed electrical capacity. During the same
period, the company, together with its partners, commissioned six new cement WHR plants, further confirming the growing market acceptance of ORC technology for large-scale industrial applications. These projects demonstrate that ORC technology is no longer confined to small or medium-size installations, but has become a viable and competitive solution for some of the world's largest cement production facilities.
Riyadh Cement Company: Demonstrating the potential of large-scale ORC
One of the most significant examples of this trend is the ORC plant supplied by Turboden to Riyadh Cement Company (RCC) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With an installed capacity of approximately 13 MW, the project represents Turboden's largest cement WHR plant commissioned to date, and the largest ORC installations operating in the global cement industry. The plant recovers waste heat from both the preheater and clinker cooler gas streams of two clinker production lines, each rated at 5000 tpd. The recovered thermal energy is converted into more than 80 GWh of clean electricity annually, significantly reducing the
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facility's dependence on external electricity supply. The project is expected to avoid more than 37 000 tpy of CO2 emissions, while providing a stable and reliable source of power generation directly at the cement plant. Beyond its scale, the RCC project is particularly notable from a technical perspective because it was designed to recover waste heat from two separate kiln lines simultaneously. The flexibility of the ORC technology allows the system to maintain efficient operation even when one of the kilns is temporarily shut down for maintenance activities. This capability ensures maximum utilisation of available waste heat, while maintaining high annual electricity generation, demonstrating the adaptability of ORC technology under real operating conditions. The project also highlights an important industry trend. As ORC systems continue to increase in size and efficiency, they become increasingly attractive compared with smaller, modular heat recovery solutions, which often achieve lower efficiencies and overall higher specific investment costs expressed in €/kW.
How the ORC technology works
In a typical WHR system, thermal energy contained within the process gas stream is first transferred to a thermal carrier, usually thermal oil, through a dedicated heat recovery heat exchanger that is specifically designed to handle the dust and operating conditions typically found in cement plants. The thermal oil then transfers the recovered energy to an organic working fluid. In cement applications, cyclopentane is often selected, due to its favourable thermodynamic characteristics and excellent match with the temperature profile of the available heat sources. The working fluid evaporates and expands through a turbine, where thermal energy is converted into mechanical power, and subsequently into electricity through a generator. After expansion, the vapour passes through a regenerator, where residual energy is recovered internally to maximise cycle efficiency. The fluid is then condensed and pumped back to the evaporator, completing a closed-loop thermodynamic cycle. Where water availability is limited or environmental constraints are particularly demanding, the entire condensation process can be achieved through air cooling, enabling completely water-free operation. 30
Designed for real industrial conditions One of the defining characteristics of Turboden's ORC technology is its ability to efficiently manage variations in thermal input. Cement plants rarely operate under perfectly stable process conditions. Kiln loads vary, process parameters fluctuate, and maintenance shutdowns periodically affect heat availability. Modern Turboden ORC systems are designed to operate efficiently across a wide operating range, typically from approximately 20 – 110% of design thermal input. Advanced control systems continuously adapt operating parameters to maximise electricity production, while maintaining safe and reliable operation. The systems are fully automated and do not require continuous operator supervision, allowing cement plant personnel to remain focused on their core activities. Furthermore, because the WHR plant is installed in parallel with the existing gas treatment line, clinker production remains fully independent of ORC operation. As a result, maintenance activities on the WHR system can be performed without impacting cement production. Nevertheless, planned maintenance is generally aligned with the annual kiln outage, minimising WHR plant downtime and maximising overall energy generation throughout the year.
Looking forward
The cement industry's journey toward lower carbon emissions will require a combination of technologies and initiatives. However, unlike many emerging solutions that are still progressing toward full industrial maturity, WHR already delivers measurable, environmental, and economic benefits today. For cement producers seeking to reduce operational costs, improve energy security, and enhance sustainability, recovering waste heat represents one of the most effective opportunities available.
About the author
Mirko Ferrari is an Energy Engineer with a Master's degree in Renewable Energy. He serves as Waste Heat to Power Sales Manager at Turboden, a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group company. He specialises in Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology and industrial waste heat recovery, with extensive experience in the cement sector and other energy-intensive industries. He has contributed to the development of numerous energy-efficiency and decarbonisation projects worldwide. World Cement November 2026
Wen Peng and Zhu Xiaosheng, Henan SRON Silo Engineering Co. Ltd., discuss methods for stress analysis and structural design of large steel silos under complex loading conditions.
L
arge-scale aluminium oxide powder steel silos have large storage capacities, considerable heights, and complex structural designs. The effects of dynamic loads, such as seismic and wind loads, are significant, and the safety and reliability of the structural design must be given full attention and adequately ensured. During the development of a large-scale aluminium oxide powder steel silo, the design
31
strictly complied with national building and structural codes. This includes the Code for Design of Steel Silo Structures (GB 50884-2013), the Load Code for the Design of Building Structures (GB 50009-2012), the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (2016 Edition) (GB 50011-2010), the Standard for Design of Steel Structures (GB 50017-2017), and the Code for Welding of Steel Structures (GB 50661-2011). Table 1. Basic design parameters of the 80 000 t
steel silo.
Silo Diameter Dn (m)
60
Elastic Modulus of Steel E (N/mm2)
2.06 × 105
Silo Wall Height h (m)
26.5
Design Strength of Q235 Steel Plate fy (N/mm2)
215
Silo Roof Rise ht (m)
12.5
Design Strength of Q355 Steel Plate fy (N/mm2)
310
Stored Material
Aluminium Oxide
Capacity m3
80 000
Structural calculation
Process design
bulk density γ (kN/m³)
10.5
Silo type
Shallow silo
Unit weight of steel (kN/m³)
78.5
Roof live load characteristic value (kN/m2)
0.5
Dust load (kN/m2)
1.0
Walkway and platform live load (kN/m2)
2.0
Basic wind pressure (kN/m2 )
0.5
Seismic fortification intensity
8˚
Peak ground acceleration
0.2g
density γ (t/m3)
1 – 1.05
Figure 1. Finite element model of the steel silo. 32
Considering the complex structural behaviour of large-scale aluminium oxide powder steel silos and based on theoretical calculations, the international, general-purpose, finite element analysis software, STAAD.Pro,- and other analysis software were used to establish an integrated model of the silo body and silo roof. Finite element analysis was then conducted to accurately calculate the stress distribution characteristics and deformation characteristics of the structure under various load conditions, including dead loads, stored material loads, live loads, wind loads, and seismic actions, as well as under their corresponding load combinations. Thereby, this ensures the safety and reliability of the structural design.
Project Introduction
For a large-scale aluminium oxide powder steel silo project, a cylindrical steel silo was adopted, with a total aluminium oxide powder storage capacity of 80 000 t. The steel silo has a diameter of 60 m and a silo wall height of 26.5 m. The silo roof adopts a conical design, with a roof rise of 12.5 m. The basic design parameters of the steel silo are shown in Table 1.
Structural design calculations
The structural design of the silo fully considers various permanent and variable loads and their combinations during actual operation. This includes the self-weight of the silo structure, self-weight of process equipment, roof live load, stored material load, wind load, seismic action, etc. The following loads are considered in the design: f Dead loads: Self-weight of the steel structure; self-weight of process equipment and supports. f Live loads: Roof live load: 0.5 kN/m2; dust load: 1.0 kN/m2; platform live load: 2.0 kN/m2; walkway live load: 2.0 kN/m2. f Stored material load: aluminium oxide powder, with a process design bulk density of 1.0 – 1.05 t/m3; a design unit weight of 10.5 kN/m3 is adopted for structural calculations. f Dynamic loads: Dynamic loads generated by the operation of process equipment, applied by multiplying the static loads by the corresponding dynamic load factors. f Seismic action: Seismic fortification intensity: 8 degrees (0.2g). f Basic wind pressure: 0.50 kN/m2 (Once-in-a-50-year event). The standard value of wind load for a 50-year return period is 0.50 kN/m2. The variation coefficient of wind pressure with height is considered based on Terrain Category B. According to the Load Code for the Design of Building Structures (GB 50009-2012), the structural wind load is calculated using the formula: ωk= βzμsμzω0. World Cement November 2026
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Values: Ωk: Standard value of wind load (kN/m2) Bz: Wind gust factor at height Z Ms: Shape coefficient for wind load Mz: Variation coefficient of wind pressure with height w0: Basic wind pressure (kN/m2) According to Clause 4.3.1 of the Code for Design of Steel Silo Structures (GB 50884-2013), when calculating the horizontal seismic action and natural vibration period of a steel silo, 80% of the total weight of the stored material shall be taken as the representative value of the effective mass of the stored material, and the centre of gravity shall be taken as the centre of gravity of the total stored material weight. Based on consideration of the horizontal pressure of the stored material, frictional forces, additional forces caused by dynamic loads during discharge,
Figure 2. Equivalent stress (von Mises) contour plot under the load combination of 1.2 dead load + 1.3 stored material load + 1.4 x 0.6 (wind load + live load).
wind loads, seismic loads, and other dynamic loads, the structural design shall be checked according to the following load combinations in accordance with the Code for Design of Steel Silo Structures (GB 50884-2013) and other applicable technical standards: f Load combination including wind load – 1.2 dead load + 1.3 stored material load + 1.4 x 0.6 (wind load + live load). f Load combination including seismic load – 1.2 dead load + 1.3 x 0.9 stored material load + 1.3 seismic load + 1.4 x 0.6 live load. Under the combined load conditions of stored material load, live load, wind load, and seismic load, the maximum stress in the silo structure is 271 MPa, which is lower than the material design strength of 310 MPa. Therefore, the silo structure is structurally safe.
Joint reinforcement design
In addition to strictly complying with national codes and standards for the design and verification of the main structural members, reinforcement measures are also adopted for welds and joints. When welding the silo wall steel plates, the vertical welds of adjacent upper and lower wall plates must be staggered. The staggered distance between the welded steel plates must be greater than 250 mm. Butt welding needs to be adopted. The weld grooves must be prepared in accordance with the Code for Welding of Steel Structures (GB 50661-2011), using a full-penetration welding process. All welding procedures must comply with the requirements of the applicable welding standards. The circumferential and vertical butt welds of the silo wall plates must be Class II welds and should be subject to non-destructive testing (NDT) in accordance with national codes and standards. For vertical seams of wall plates subjected to relatively high stress, gusset plates must be used for reinforcement to ensure the safety and reliability of the welded joints.
Conclusion
Figure 3. Equivalent stress (von Mises) contour plot under the load combination of 1.2 dead load + 1.3 x 0.9 stored material load + 1.3 seismic load + 1.4 x 0.6 live load. 34
During the design process, the structural design of the steel silo adopted for this project was subjected to detailed finite element analysis in accordance with the applicable codes and standards, with full consideration given to the self-weight of the structure, stored material loads, live loads (including dust load, roof live load, and snow load), wind loads, seismic load, and other dynamic loads. This ensures the structural safety of the silo. Reinforcement measures were also implemented for potential weak points, thereby fully ensuring the safety and reliability of the structure throughout the design process. World Cement November 2026
Clara Planque, STANDARD INDUSTRIE, discusses how remote, mechanical declogging can act as an alternative to confined-space entry in silos.
ulk material storage is fundamental to the production of cement and construction materials. However, the internal walls of silos can obstruct the very flow they are designed to facilitate. Cement, clinker dust, plaster, coal, and other powdered materials can adhere to concrete surfaces, forming crusts, bridges, and vertical ‘ratholes’ that progressively reduce usable capacity. For plant operators, the consequences are direct: Reduced discharge rates, unplanned production stoppages, out-of-specification material caused by contamination, and in extreme cases, the risk of dust explosions. This article examines the main blockage mechanisms and presents four case studies that show how remote mechanical declogging can restore
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storage capacity without exposing personnel to work inside the vessel.
Understanding silo blockages: bridging and ratholing
The remote-controlled GIRONET articulated arm is introduced through an access point in the roof or wall and operated against the silo walls, with the operator working entirely from outside.
Two failure modes are responsible for a large proportion of capacity losses. Bridging occurs when material forms a self-supporting structure across the internal diameter of the silo, leaving a void underneath while the discharge point runs empty. Ratholing occurs when material flows through a narrow central channel while the surrounding mass remains in place and progressively consolidates against the walls. Moisture is often a triggering factor. At Titan Kosjeric, an average residual moisture content of just 0.3% in the cement was enough to make the material cohesive and promote the formation of channels. At a French gypsum plant, water ingress through a roof or damaged vent caused a hardened crust to form. If left untreated, these phenomena reduce effective storage volume, decrease discharge rates, and increase the risk of the sudden collapse of an overhanging mass.
The limitations of manual intervention
For decades, a blocked silo was often cleaned manually by a rope-access technician who entered the vessel to break up deposits. However, this method exposes personnel to the risks of engulfment, falling material, and hazardous atmospheres, including dust explosions or oxygen deficiency. Increasingly stringent safety regulations are making such interventions more difficult to justify.
Remote, mechanical unclogging
Technicians installing the mechanism through the access hatch of the Titan Kosjeric cement silo, Serbia. 36
The alternative developed in the cement and other heavy-material industries is remote, mechanical unclogging. A GIRONET is introduced into the silo through an access point in the roof or wall and operated entirely from outside the vessel, generally through a manway of at least 400 mm. Therefore, no personnel need to enter the vessel. This approach offers four key advantages: f Safety: The operation is carried out from outside, limiting exposure to confined-space hazards. f Performance: The same equipment can be adapted to different materials and geometries, with projects typically completed in days rather than weeks. f Productivity: Cleaning from the outside can often be performed without completely halting production and allows the silo to regain its nominal capacity with minimal material loss. World Cement November 2026
f Environmental benefits: The mechanical action uses neither water nor chemical additives, avoiding the introduction of moisture or contaminants into the remaining product. Two complementary tools are used depending on the type of obstruction. For bridges, a remote-controlled drilling tool, POWERNET, drills through the obstruction from a safe distance to restore flow, with drilling diameters of approximately 65 to 300 mm and working depths of up to 45 m, in pneumatic or hydraulic versions. For ratholes, a 360˚-pivoting articulated arm, GIRONET, is lowered through the access point and operated against the walls to mechanically break down deposits.
Service delivery and application sectors
These interventions are generally delivered as a structured service: A technical site visit to assess the blockage and access points, a cleaning campaign carried out by a specialised team of two or three people, and, increasingly, regulatory follow-up integrated into the site’s safety management system. The same methodology has been applied in cement plants, steelworks, foundries, incineration plants, thermal power stations, glassworks, mines and quarries, lime plants, coke plants, food-processing facilities, and sugar refineries. Bridging and ratholing are therefore a cross-industry issue in the storage of powdered and bulk materials. Case study: Cement silo – Titan Kosjeric, Serbia (2026) At Titan’s cement plant in Kosjeric, a silo with a 12 m diameter developed significant channels and blockage issues linked to an average residual moisture content of approximately 0.3%. The operator had previously relied on rope-access teams, a method that had become increasingly difficult to justify in light of safety requirements. A team of two technicians installed a GIRONET through a 528 x 528 mm access hatch located at the centre of the silo roof. Over 23 days, the arm broke through the central blockage and then removed deposits from the walls. Approximately, 1400 t of cement was extracted and the silo’s storage capacity was restored without any technician entering the vessel.
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Case study: Gypsum silo – Placoplatre, France (2015) At the Placoplatre plant in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, water ingress into a gypsum silo had caused
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a hardened crust to form on the walls and reduced usable storage volume. A GIRONET intervention removed the crust and compacted material at the bottom of the silo. It also made the vessel safe for a subsequent internal inspection, demonstrating that mechanical declogging can serve as a preparatory step
before maintenance operations that require silo entry.
Best practices for managing silo blockage risk
f Diagnose before intervening: Bridges and ratholes require different tools and access strategies. A technical site visit should identify the blockage type, silo geometry, and access constraints. f Plan access points: A dedicated, adequately sized hatch reduces preparation time and facilitates repeat interventions. f Plan maintenance: Incorporating declogging into an annual programme helps prevent unplanned stoppages and emergency cleaning operations. f Address root causes: When moisture is involved, repairing roof seals, vents, or other sources of water ingress reduces the risk of recurring blockages.
Conclusion
Interior view of the Kosjeric cement silo, showing the formation of tunnels typical of 'ratholing' in a cohesive material with low moisture content.
Across cement and gypsum applications, the common thread is the removal of personnel from inside the silo without compromising the thoroughness of the cleaning. Extraction volumes in the thousands of tonnes, multi-week campaigns, and repeat annual contracts all suggest that remote, mechanical declogging has moved beyond a niche safety measure to become a standard maintenance tool for bulk-solids storage operators. For plants in the cement and building-materials sector facing the same combination of moisture-driven blockage and tightening of confined-space regulation, the operational record suggests that scheduled, remotely operated cleaning can restore full storage capacity, while removing one of the more hazardous tasks from the plant maintenance calendar. As cement producers across the Arab region and beyond continue to formalise confined-space and working-at-height policies, the experience documented – from a single-visit crust removal to a multi-week 1400 t cement extraction – offers a useful reference point for what a fully remote declogging programme can look like in practice. As well as for the planning, access design, and maintenance-scheduling decisions that make it repeatable.
About the author
The marks visible on the outside of the Placoplatre gypsum silo correspond to the crust removed from the internal wall. 38
Clara Planque is a marketing and communications specialist at STANDARD INDUSTRIE International, a French company founded in 1978. Clara holds a master’s degree in communications and business administration from Lille, in northern France. World Cement November 2026
Andy Carnan, Mole•Master, uncovers how adding laser-based 3D asset scanning can give operators of enclosed dry bulk storage a way to see what's happening within a vessel without ever putting a worker inside.
ne of dry bulk handling's oldest and most dangerous problems is the challenge of getting blocked, bridged or built-up material out of silos, bins, and bunkers without sending anyone inside the vessel. For more than four decades, Mole•Master Services Corporation has built its reputation on solving this problem. The company's latest addition to that portfolio extends that same no-entry philosophy from cleaning into
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inspection and asset management, using 3D LiDAR technology to turn the inside of an enclosed storage vessel into a fully measured digital model. The service answers a question that has long frustrated operators of covered dry bulk storage: How do you know what's really happening inside a silo without opening it up and putting a technician at risk? Blocked chutes, hung-up material, corrosion, structural damage, and unexpected buildup are all difficult to assess from outside, and confined space entry to check on them carries its own cost in permits, standby rescue crews, and schedule disruption, as well as the increased safety risk. Mole•Master’s LiDAR technology is designed to remove that trade-off by capturing the interior of a vessel from the outside. The scanning equipment is capable of providing detail to within roughly 2 mm, gathering millions of individual data points across the interior surfaces of a silo, bin, or bunker without any need for confined space entry, permits, or rescue standby.
Mole•Master structures the service around four stages: f An initial site survey to plan scan positions and minimise disruption to operations. f The scan itself. f Processing of the raw data into point clouds and 360˚ imagery. f Delivery of the finished dataset in formats suited to the client's team.
Turnaround from scan to delivered data is typically 5 – 7 business days and the report is tailored to how different teams within an operation will use it. Operations personnel receive 360˚ HDR imagery, volumetric data for tracking material inventory, and annotated findings that are accessible through a secure web portal. Engineering teams are provided CAD-compatible 3D models that can feed directly into repair planning or structural assessment. Asset managers gain a baseline scan that can be repeated over time, supporting condition trending, audit trails, and longer-term capital planning for storage infrastructure. A recent clean-out illustrates the value that 3D LiDAR scanning can provide in practice. Mole•Master was called to clean a bulk storage asset and prior to the clean-out conducted a series of scans to provide a clearer insight into the build-up issues within the asset. Data processed using advanced flow modelling and build-up identification techniques proved invaluable in identifying the root cause of the blockages showing up year after year. LiDAR scan of cement silo showing material positioning and The analysis did more general condition. than confirm that material build-up was present; it showed precisely how the build-up was affecting the movement of material through the asset. By mapping the internal geometry and applying flow modelling to the scan data, Mole•Master identified the areas experiencing reduced material throughput due to accumulated material restricting individual discharge points. The model also revealed previously unseen deposits Material flow mapping highlighting areas where material flow is and demonstrated how inhibited. 40
World Cement November 2026
their location and thickness were interrupting the expected flow paths within the vessel. This allowed the Mole•Master team to distinguish between minor wall scale and the restrictions having the greatest operational impact. Technicians then deployed the company's Big•Mole system to concentrate on those priority areas. The scan data was then compared with the asset's original design drawings, allowing the team to assess how the vessel's intended geometry differed from its current internal condition. This comparison supported further analysis of the material's behaviour, including how the location and extent of build-up were altering flow paths, restricting discharges, and contributing to reduced throughput. The job was completed on time and within budget, with cleaning decisions based on measured changes in build-up and material flow, rather than estimation. Mole•Master 3D LiDAR technology complements the company’s existing non-entry cleaning technology, such as the Junior 360˚ whip machine and Arch•Master portable drilling equipment, and its structural inspection and confined space entry services. This gives operators of enclosed dry bulk storage a single point of contact that spans inspection, cleaning and repair. The company's technicians are MSHA and OSHA-trained, and the addition of LiDAR scanning reflects the same underlying goal that
has driven Mole•Master's cleaning business for more than 40 years: Keeping people out of confined spaces wherever the job allows it, without sacrificing the quality or detail of the information that operators need. For terminal operators, cement and grain handlers, and others managing covered dry bulk storage, M-LAS offers a practical route to the kind of documented, measurable understanding of vessel condition that has traditionally required entry, downtime, or both.
About the author
Andy Carnan serves as the LiDAR Technology Manager at Mole•Master Services Corporation. He leads the development and implementation of advanced 3D scanning and data analysis solutions to support industrial inspection and material management operations. His professional background includes extensive experience in Europe with an inspection solutions company specialising in remote visual inspection. He is well-versed in ASME plant inspection standards, ultrasonic testing, and magnetic particle inspection methods, and is an Associate of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing. Since first working with LiDAR technology in 2018, beginning with the initial BLK360 platform, Andy has remained at the forefront of integrating emerging spatial data technologies into the industrial inspection sector.
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Jerad Heitzler, Martin Engineering, challenges the long-held industry belief that dust emissions in cement plants are inescapable, and shows how tackling the root cause boosts worker morale, operational efficiency, and safety. eyond popular belief, dust emissions in cement plants are not inevitable. Even when running empty, a moving conveyor belt pulls air through the enclosure in the direction it is moving. When material hits the belt, the impact causes the cargo to splash, particulates become airborne, and the resulting air turbulence forces dust emissions toward the
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nearest opening. Without a sealed environment controlling airflow, the poor air quality creates a serious workplace safety hazard (Figure 1). Dust emissions do not just create a harmful environment for those working in the area. Abrasive particulates enter exposed machine parts and rolling components, causing them to wear more quickly, seize, and require replacement sooner. Dust clogs air intakes of nearby equipment and vehicles, raising the amount of downtime and maintenance. Particulates cover walkways, pile up on stairs, obscure signage, and pose serious environmental concerns. Often at issue is that many operators lack understanding about the underlying causes of dust. Most solutions focus on dust suppression and collection, but decades of field study and experience have shown that in order to control air quality at transfer points, it is more beneficial to address the root causes by taking a holistic view of the function and design of the material transfer process.
Elements of a transfer chute
A transfer chute should have several key components that mitigate material spillage and dust, allow the cargo to settle on the belt’s centre, and facilitate the settling of dust,
Figure 1. Not a black and white photo, this is a cement plant with a serious dust issue.
either back into the cargo flow or into a dust collection mechanism. These components include cradles, wear liners, skirting, raised enclosures, and strategically placed dust curtains (Figure 2). Some manufacturers offer modular transfer chute enclosures that can be quickly and economically retrofitted for changes in production during scheduled downtime. Extending the transfer chute enclosure provides more space for the turbulent air and dust to settle. Externally facing wear liners and skirting allow easy access for significantly safer maintenance. Although the normal lock-out/tag-out procedures are required, external servicing eliminates the need for chute entry and drastically reduces the amount of downtime.
Nuisance vs. respirable dust
If the particulates floating in the air are visible, they are not small enough to be respirable, meaning they do not surpass the body’s natural defences and enter deep into the lung, which can cause serious damage and health issues. Nuisance particulate matter (PM) smaller than 200 µm (micrometres in diameter) – roughly the size of normal household dust – is light enough to remain airborne on ambient air currents. It settles on every surface and causes serious abrasion in rolling and mechanical components. When PM reaches 100 µm – approximately the size of a cross section of a human hair – it becomes invisible to the naked eye. At 10 µm or smaller, the particulate is considered ‘respirable’. These particulates have become highly regulated, as they have been linked to chronic lung diseases that some workers experience later in life. This level of regulation has drastically lowered the mortality rate. The chute design can have a significant impact on the volume of particulate matter emitted during conveyor transfers. Chutes that are properly sealed and retrofitted with three curtain zones incrementally slow the airflow and allow dust to settle. Field tests show a drastic reduction in emissions of both nuisance and respirable dust (Figure 3).
Identifying the root causes of dust
Figure 2. A well-designed transfer chute prevents fugitive material and ensures cargo is centred and settled. 46
Many operators have the misperception that, in the inherently dirty business of mining, processing, and handling bulk materials, dust control is a futile battle that can never be overcome. This is particularly true when experienced maintenance staff gaze baffled at a transfer point that is engulfed in layers of dust, with no indication to the source of the emissions. Air flow through the transfer point is achieved by adjusting the loading angle and the proper World Cement November 2026
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placement of dust curtains. With a centred and sloped or spoon-shaped loading configuration, the cargo is eased onto the belt with less impact (and associated belt damage), no splashing, reduced air turbulence, and less shifting that leads
Figure 3. The percentage reduction in dust within 3 chutes, differentiated by chute height and width. Fugitive material and ensures cargo is centred and settled.
to potential mistracking. Proper placement of curtains creates zones where air is slowed, allowing dust to settle back into the cargo stream or be sequestered into dust collection systems (Figure 4). Material degradation increases small fines in two ways. As raw material is processed through crushers or mills, it is reduced in size and dust becomes more prevalent. Degradation can also be caused by the impact of material upon transfer, resulting in it breaking apart. Poor transfer point design for current production expectations is perhaps the largest cause of dust. Conveyor systems are generally built for the production demand at the time of construction and leave little room for change. Increases in production require either a greater volume of conveyed material or higher belt speeds. Often, they result in both. If the system is not graded for these expectations, dust becomes the bellwether for a host of other issues such as reduced workplace safety, increased spillage, more frequent equipment breakdowns, and excessive downtime.
Best practices for belt conveyor dust control
Figure 4. The centred spoon loading design helps control turbulence and airflow.
Figure 5. Mechanical air cleaners are low-maintenance and improve the air quality around the system. 48
f Avoid belt sag: Supporting the belt along the entire length of the chute wall (AKA the ‘skirtboard’) means that it does not sag away from the skirting. The pressure from air turbulence is enough to push dust and fines out of these gaps, causing excessive dust and spillage. f Wear liners increase the conveyor system’s life: Modern chute design raises the height of the chute, providing more room for dust settling in the stilling zone and also room to place the external wear liner. Without it, the rubber skirting takes the force of abrasive bulk material, which lowers the equipment’s lifespan and requires premature replacement. f Install belt skirting to seal the environment: Single skirting should be cut to the belt’s trough angle for a tighter seal, and mounted externally for easy and safe adjustment. Self-adjusting skirting has spring-driven latches that offer slight downward pressure for reduced maintenance. Dual skirting offers a single skirt with a rubber flap that provides a second layer of sealing and protection from spillage and emissions. World Cement November 2026
f Seal before adding dust collection devices: ‘Passive dust control’ uses engineered design solutions such as controlled loading, wear liners, skirting, curtains, and modular enclosures first. When there are length restrictions for chutes to allow an extended stilling/settling zones, dust bags and mechanical air cleaners are highly effective. They use the airflow to direct dust toward the mechanism and once the conveyor system stops, that collected dust is deposited back onto the belt. However, they can require more maintenance and monitoring, so sealing first will better control the cost of operation (Figure 5). f Slow the exiting air velocity: A flow of air is still going to be prevalent exiting the system, but the key is slowing it to under 200 fpm (1 m/s), which is enough to reduce emissions. Adding a tail panel and curtains is essential to this. However, just adding them at the ends does not accomplish the proper stilling environment required. Strategic placement is the key to slowing exiting air velocity.
Conclusion
Whilst improving workplace air quality may seem daunting, it increases compliance and boosts staff morale and safety. Of course,
conveyor transfer points are not the only source of dust. However, as one of the most prevalent sources of particulate emissions in any cement plant, it is an excellent place to start. By following best practices and using modern, well-designed retrofitted components, operators can tackle dust through a process of elimination. Once large emission sources are addressed, it is easier to identify dust from other parts of the operation, with the ultimate goal of a clean, efficient operation, high worker morale, and an exemplary safety record.
About the author
As programme manager and lead instructor for Martin Engineering’s FOUNDATIONS™ Training Workshops, Jerad Heitzler is a leader in helping the industry learn how to make the handling of bulk materials cleaner, safer, and more productive. He started with Martin Engineering as a Customer Development Representative in 2006. He soon realised his love for presentations and for teaching about conveyor systems. In 2010, he took over management and development of the company’s FOUNDATIONS Workshop programme. Under his leadership the programme has expanded to offer several levels of conveyor improvement workshops around the world.
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Melisa Diaz and Richard Jones, Donaldson, explore how industrial filtration for combustible dust and ATEX environments can be a powerful ally for workforce protection and plant performance.
A
combustible dust explosion risk in cement manufacturing is not typically associated with the cement itself, but with specific process areas where combustible fuels, such as coal, petcoke or alternative fuels, are stored, milled and handled in finely divided form. In these applications, understanding ATEX requirements and selecting the appropriate industrial filtration systems is important to help prevent, protect against, and mitigate explosion hazards, while supporting safe and compliant operations.
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Across Europe, employers are required to demonstrate that appropriate measures are in place either to prevent explosions from taking place, or to protect against or mitigate their effects. In the EU, these obligations are set out in the ATEX Workplace Directive (Directive 1999/92/EC), while in the UK they are implemented through The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR), enforced by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). Both frameworks establish a clear hierarchy of measures, whereby explosion prevention is preferable to explosion protection and mitigation. The process owner must conduct an explosion risk assessment for the workplace, either by competent internal personnel or by qualified external specialists. Based on the assessment, all areas must be classified into different ATEX zones, each of which reflects how often an explosive atmosphere might occur. Understanding zoning is key when it comes to the design of appropriate dust filtration systems, as achieving the correct zone classification will help drive the right technical compliance decisions. Industrial filtration manufacturers are required to carry out an Ignition Risk Assessment (IRA) and document it in accordance with applicable EN standards. They must assess a filter unit to determine whether it presents any potential ignition source when used in a potentially explosive atmosphere. The following standards, among others, are commonly used to support the IRA and the design of equipment intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. f EN 1127-1 Part 1 (Explosive atmospheres – Explosion prevention and protection): Basic concepts and methodology. This critical document lists the 13 identified ignition sources that must be evaluated against the equipment's design. f EN ISO 80079-36 (Non-electrical equipment for explosive atmospheres): Basic method and requirements. This standard specifies the basic method and requirements for design, construction, testing, and marking
PowerCore CPV dust collector. 12 bin vent aggregate screener evaluation. 52
of non-electrical equipment for explosive atmospheres. f EN ISO 80079-37 (Non-electrical equipment for explosive atmospheres): Non-electrical type of protection for constructional safety ‘c’, control of ignition source ‘b’, and liquid immersion ‘k’. If the IRA identifies a risk, this standard specifies the engineering methods to mitigate that risk using these defined protection concepts. Static electricity is a recognised ignition hazard in dust filtration systems, for example, where high-velocity dust flow and the use of synthetic filter media can lead to charge accumulation. It is, therefore, also important to consider whether the dust is electrically conductive, as conductivity influences the likelihood of electrostatic charge accumulation and the risk of ignition. The technical report, CLC/TR 60079-32-1 (Explosive atmospheres – Electrostatic hazards – Guidance), provides guidance to avoid ignition and electrostatic shock hazards arising from static electricity. It addresses topics such as conductive properties of filter media, paint, as well as bonding and earthing of cages, housings and associated components, among others.
Explosive properties of dust
If a dust is explosive, it exhibits specific explosion characteristics that describe the severity of a potential dust explosion. Examples of these characteristics are: f The Pmax: The maximum amount of pressure that can be reached with a specific dust. It indicates the maximum amount of damage that dust can cause in an enclosed space, which will also depend on the particle size of the dust. f The Kst: The dust explosion index, a measure of how quickly pressure can rise. This is defined under controlled conditions in a laboratory and will define how fast pressure goes from zero to the Pmax. This generally means that the higher the Kst value, the stronger the explosion will be. f Minimum ignition energy (MIE): This provides an indication of how easily a dust can be ignited by potential ignition sources. Dust should be tested by a qualified laboratory to determine the parameters discussed above. This information helps guide the selection of appropriate equipment and measures to prevent explosion and, where necessary, mitigate its hazards. While many cement manufacturing process requirements may make the elimination of combustible dust, fumes, or process gases impractical, it may still be possible to control airborne contaminants through an appropriate and effective industrial ventilation system, including dust collection. A well-designed, maintained and operated dust collection system is an integral part of risk mitigation and compliance with standards and regulations. World Cement November 2026
ATEX philosophy and industrial filtration design
The core ATEX philosophy is to avoid the formation of an explosive atmosphere in the first place. However, for cement manufacturing processes, this is not always feasible. In such cases, the focus shifts to identifying and controlling potential ignition sources wherever possible. Where this cannot be fully achieved, explosion protection and mitigation measures must be implemented to limit and control the effects of an explosion. For example, typical mitigation measures used in dust filtration systems include: f Inlet isolation devices: Installed to prevent an explosion from propagating from the dust collector back into other areas of the manufacturing facility. f Explosion venting devices: Designed to safely relieve the pressure generated by an explosion before it can build up to destructive levels. f Explosion suppression systems: Designed to detect and suppress an incipient explosion before it fully develops, thereby limiting the pressure and flame effects. As mentioned earlier, the process owner must identify the different zones within the plant, and inform the industrial filtration supplier so that they provide equipment within the correct category. For example, for Zone 22 (dust), equipment must be at least 3D. The ‘3’ refers to the equipment category and the ‘D’ stands for dust. According to the ATEX Directive, Category 3D equipment is designed for areas where explosive atmospheres caused by mixtures of air and combustible dusts, are unlikely to occur or, if they do occur, will do so infrequently and for a short period only. In addition to selecting the correct ATEX equipment category, industrial filtration equipment suppliers must also consider several other aspects. For example, ingress protection (IP) ratings are used to classify the degree of protection that enclosures provide against the ingress of solid foreign objects and water, and defined in the standard EN IEC 60529.
An explosion risk assessment being conducted. 54
While it does not assess explosion protection, it is important to consider limiting dust ingress into enclosures, reduce static accumulation or protect internal components, for example. Surface temperature is another component. Equipment must be marked with a maximum permissible surface temperature. The temperature of the equipment must remain safely below the minimum ignition temperature (MIT) of both the dust cloud and the dust layer. This determines whether the equipment can operate safely in a hazardous area without igniting the surrounding dust atmosphere. Static electricity must be measured to prevent hazardous discharges of static electricity. Proper bonding and earthing of the filter housing and associated components is required. Further measures may be implemented, such as controlling surface resistivity or using conductive materials. For example, where non-conductive coatings such as paint are applied, their thickness should be limited to prevent propagating brush discharge. Equipment must also be clearly marked with the Ex-hexagon symbol, the group, the category and the temperature class.
Key combustible dust mitigation strategy considerations
The creation of a mitigation plan by the process owner to help manage combustible dust is required for almost all facilities. There are various key considerations. Prevention measures Data sheets for the substances and materials that could become explosive must be available to employees. Equipment operators must be trained on the explosion hazards of combustible dusts. Dust control measures Dust-containing systems, including ductwork and dust collectors, should be designed so that fugitive dusts are not allowed to accumulate in the work area. The facility must have a housekeeping programme with regular cleaning frequencies established for floors and other surfaces, such as ducts, pipes, hoods, ledges, and beams, to minimise dust accumulations within operating areas of the facility. Working surfaces should be designed to minimise dust accumulation and to facilitate cleaning. Proper maintenance and regular inspection of any equipment in contact with potential explosive atmospheres must be undertaken according to its specific risk assessment. All inspection, maintenance, and cleaning instructions specified in the dust collector manufacturer’s manual must be followed for proper operation. World Cement November 2026
Ignition control measures The facility should have an ignition control programme that addresses potential ignition sources associated with dust-handling operations. This may include measures such as earthing and bonding to dissipate electrostatic charges that might be generated during the handling and conveyance of combustible dusts through process equipment and ductwork. Duct systems, dust collectors, and dust-producing machinery should be bonded and earthed to minimise the accumulation of static electrical charge. Protection measures The facility must maintain an explosion protection document, including an assessment of specific explosion risks relevant to its activities. Dust collectors should preferably be located outdoors. However, indoor installation is also feasible if appropriate explosion protection and mitigation measures are applied correctly. Where explosion venting is used on dust collectors, venting devices should be positioned to safely relieve explosion pressure to an appropriate location away from personnel. In cases where discharge to the outside is not possible or practical, flameless venting solutions should be applied to allow pressure relief, while preventing the release of flames into the surrounding area. Where dust handling equipment is interconnected by ductwork, suitable isolation measures should be considered to prevent the propagation of an explosion between system components.
Systematic approach
Selecting the appropriate industrial filtration system for combustible dust environments in cement manufacturing plants requires a systematic approach that balances regulatory compliance, detailed risk assessment, and accurate equipment selection and design. Process owners must conduct an explosion risk assessment to classify hazardous areas into ATEX zones, to help support technical decisions during dust collection system design. Dust testing by a qualified laboratory should also help to guide the selection of appropriate equipment and protective measures. Filtration equipment manufacturers must complement this with their own IRA, in accordance with applicable EN standards. The final filtration solution must align with the designated ATEX equipment category, while incorporating the appropriate measures. In practice, it is often not possible to eliminate the presence of a potentially explosive atmosphere or all possible ignition sources. In such cases, the dust collection system should incorporate appropriate explosion protection and mitigation measures to limit the consequences of an explosion and support safe operation.
John Brown, IAC, explores how IoT diagnostics are changing baghouse reliability by monitoring common vulnerabilities, in order to respond to problems sooner rather than later.
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ement plants operate some of the most challenging dust collection systems in industrial manufacturing. Raw mill, kiln, clinker cooler, and finish mill baghouses run continuously in harsh environments, where reliability directly impacts production, environmental compliance, energy consumption, and maintenance costs. Historically, facilities have managed these systems reactively. Today, IoT diagnostics
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and AI-driven analytics are enabling plants to identify performance degradation before it results in downtime, emissions excursions, excessive compressed air consumption, or premature bag failure.
a straightforward process: Connect equipment, collect data, identify trends, and act before failures occur.
Five failure modes, one blind spot
At one cement plant, mill-area dust collectors were difficult to access and had no remote monitoring capability. Maintenance personnel often discovered problems only during scheduled inspections or when downstream storage silos stopped filling. Investigations routinely uncovered elevated differential pressure, excessive hopper accumulation, or cleaning system failures. The plant installed IoT-enabled controllers with compressed air monitoring and hopper level detection. Diaphragm failures, solenoid faults, and declining pulse performance are now detected immediately through automated text and email alerts. Instead of waiting for the next inspection cycle, maintenance teams can respond as problems emerge. The system has also provided visibility into how moisture content and product characteristics contribute to hopper buildup and airflow restrictions.
Every baghouse circuit is vulnerable to five common modes of failure: Differential pressure, compressed air demand, thermal stress, mechanical wear, and chemical attack. High differential pressure signals that there is restricted airflow and increased energy consumption. Excessive compressed air demand often indicates declining cleaning performance, caused by failed diaphragms, leaking valves, plugged nozzles, or weakened pulse energy. As cleaning effectiveness decreases, differential pressure rises, cleaning frequency increases, compressed air costs climb, and filter bag life is reduced. Thermal stress degrades diaphragms, gaskets, and filter media above their design limits. Mechanical wear occurs gradually over millions of cleaning cycles, reducing pulse performance over time. Chemical attack frequently appears when systems operate near acid or moisture dew points. None of these failure modes are new. The difference today is that plants can see them developing before they become costly operational problems.
From data collection to operational intelligence
Modern IoT-enabled baghouse controllers continuously monitor differential pressure, compressed air manifold conditions, pulse valve performance, temperature, hopper levels, solenoid health, and broken bag detection systems. Rather than relying on periodic inspections, facilities gain continuous visibility into equipment health. The technology follows
Case study 1: Solving the access problem
Case study 2: Building reliability into new construction
A newly constructed seaport terminal faced an equipment access challenge. Elevated dust collectors were not integrated into the plant PLC system, and no elevators were included in the facility design. Routine inspections required climbing long spiral stairways. The facility deployed IoT diagnostics from startup. Role-based notifications routed electrical faults to electrical personnel and performance-related alarms to maintenance teams. Operators can now verify equipment status remotely before unloading begins. The transition from timer-based cleaning to demand-based cleaning reduced unnecessary pulse cycles, lowered compressed air consumption, and extended the life of diaphragms, solenoids, and cleaning system components.
Case study 3: Eliminating a known failure pattern
The five common modes of failure that can affect baghouse circuits. 58
A dryer baghouse in a high-temperature environment experienced recurring diaphragm failures due to thermal degradation. Pulse energy declined, compressed air consumption increased, cleaning effectiveness decreased, and filter bags experienced premature failure. The plant replaced traditional diaphragms with a higher-performance design and implemented compressed air manifold monitoring across the cleaning system. World Cement November 2026
Operators can now identify failed diaphragms, leaking valves, and declining pulse performance before contamination events or significant bag damage occur. Field results showed meaningful reductions in compressed air consumption while increasing cleaning efficiency and extending bag life. For a facility where downtime costs can be measured in tens of thousands of dollars per hour, early detection generated significant value.
Case study 4: Scaling across a multi-site portfolio
A cement manufacturer operating multiple facilities faced a shrinking workforce, ageing baghouses, and increasing environmental reporting requirements. The company initially deployed wireless differential pressure transmitters to automate compliance reporting and eliminate manual inspections. After proving successful, IoT-enabled controllers were expanded across multiple sites. Reliability teams gained the ability to remotely monitor cleaning performance, compressed
Vendor-neutral architecture addresses access problems.
air usage, differential pressure trends, and equipment health. A leaking diaphragm valve that previously might have gone unnoticed for months can now be identified and addressed quickly, reducing both wasted compressed air and the secondary impacts associated with poor cleaning performance and reduced bag life.
Preserving institutional knowledge
Many cement plants once employed dedicated baghouse specialists who understood maintenance intervals, failure patterns, and operating behaviour. As experienced personnel retire and more maintenance activities are outsourced, that institutional knowledge often disappears. IoT diagnostics help preserve this expertise by continuously collecting operational history and maintenance records, creating a permanent source of reliability knowledge that can be leveraged by current and future personnel.
The next evolution: AI-powered maintenance agents
The future of baghouse diagnostics extends beyond monitoring. AI-powered maintenance agents are now capable of reviewing work orders, alarm histories, operating trends, maintenance records, compressed air consumption, and equipment performance across multiple facilities. Instead of searching through spreadsheets and reports, maintenance managers can ask questions such as: Which raw mill baghouses should be included in the upcoming spring outage? Which systems have shown declining cleaning performance over the last six months? Which diaphragm valves should be replaced proactively? What spare parts should be ordered before the outage begins? These AI agents can recommend preventive maintenance activities, build outage work scopes, identify recurring failure patterns, track completion of work orders, and estimate the operational impact of unresolved issues. In many ways, they function as a virtual reliability engineer that continuously reviews production and maintenance data, highlighting concerns weeks or months before upset conditions occur.
Open architecture matters
Telemetry graph for 'Dryer Baghouse Line 4', showing cleaning status, pulse rate, total pulses, and running hours. 60
Many monitoring platforms are tied to a specific sensor manufacturer or technology stack. Plants often end up managing separate systems for level monitoring, vibration monitoring, compressed air systems, environmental reporting, and process instrumentation. This creates unnecessary costs and fragmented visibility. World Cement November 2026
A vendor-neutral architecture allows facilities to integrate preferred level sensors, vibration monitoring systems, fan diagnostics, compressor monitoring, pump instrumentation, and baghouse diagnostics into a single dashboard. Just as importantly, access should not be limited to only a handful of users. Reliability, maintenance, operations, environmental, and management personnel all benefit when information is available from a common platform. Consolidating data into a single location reduces software costs, simplifies administration, and improves decision making across departments.
Safety: an often-overlooked benefit
Many baghouses are installed in elevated or difficult-to-access locations. Historically, obtaining performance information required personnel to climb ladders, platforms, or stair towers. With remote diagnostics, most inspections can be completed from ground level or from any location with network access, reducing exposure to hazards while increasing maintenance efficiency.
What this means for cement plant operators
The future of baghouse reliability is no longer simply collecting data. It is transforming data into actionable maintenance intelligence. IoT-enabled
diagnostics provide visibility into differential pressure, cleaning effectiveness, compressed air consumption, and equipment health. AI-powered maintenance agents transform that information into outage recommendations, maintenance priorities, spare parts planning, and proactive work orders. As labour markets tighten and experienced personnel retire, operators that embrace predictive diagnostics and AI-assisted maintenance planning will be better positioned to reduce operating costs, extend bag life, optimise compressed air usage, improve reliability, and avoid unplanned downtime.
About the author
John Brown has spent 27 years in the industrial filtration sector, specialising in particulate control, compliance, and performance optimisation. His career began in management sales at Midwesco Filter, followed by building the US division for an international CEMS and particulate-monitoring manufacturer. For the past decade, he has served as Director of Business Development at Industrial Accessories Company, where he has helped champion IoT modernisation strategies, predictive maintenance programmes, and best-practice digital upgrades for baghouse operations across North America.
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Keith Ogilvie and Michael Neate, Cleanova, demonstrate how a different engineering approach can deliver improved capacity without compromising other performance parameters. ne assumption has shaped industrial investment decisions for decades: improving performance requires compromise. The mantra goes like this: Increasing throughput typically drives higher energy consumption and accelerates wear. Reducing cost can introduce operational risk. Improving environmental performance requires additional capital investment. Engineers and plant operators continue to work within these constraints, optimising one variable while accepting limitations in others as a price they have to pay. Now a growing number of projects are demonstrating that, with the right engineering approach, it is possible to deliver simultaneous gains in productivity,
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cost-efficiency, and environmental performance without trade-offs. This article explains how such outcomes can be achieved, using a recent filtration retrofit project as a successful, data-led example.
This is a familiar scenario for many industrial plants. Conventionally, when systems reach their limits, expansion is seen as the only viable option.
The gap between design and reality
Rather than accepting structural expansion as inevitable, the plant invited Cleanova to apply its filtration expertise and re-examine the fundamentals of system performance. Instead of focusing on how to increase the size of the baghouse, Cleanova asked a more fundamental question: What was actually limiting its ability to handle higher gas volumes? In baghouse systems, one of the most critical parameters is the air-to-cloth ratio. This represents the relationship between gas flow and the available filtration surface area. As this ratio increases, filtration velocity rises and system stability begins to degrade. Dust cake formation becomes less consistent, cleaning demand increases, and filter media is subjected to greater mechanical stress. The consequences are well understood: higher energy consumption, reduced filter life, and diminished emissions performance. In this case, the planned 25% increase in gas flow would have pushed the air-to-cloth ratio beyond acceptable limits, making these effects unavoidable. However, Cleanova’s analysis ascertained that the limitation was not the physical size of the baghouse itself, but the amount of effective filtration area available within it. If that area could be increased without changing the external structure, the system could handle higher throughput while maintaining stable operation.
In industries such as cement, metals, power generation, and bulk materials handling, operating systems are under increasing pressure. Production targets continue to rise, feedstocks are becoming more variable, and emissions regulations are tightening. Yet many systems remain constrained by legacy designs, originally engineered for lower volumes and more stable operating conditions. Over time, this mismatch between design and reality becomes increasingly evident. For example, filtration systems operate closer to their limits, differential pressure increases, cleaning cycles become less stable, and energy consumption increases. Maintenance demands follow the same trajectory, while emissions margins narrow. At one cement plant, this situation became critical when a planned production increase required a 25% rise in gas flow through the clinker cooler baghouse. The system had already reached its maximum operating capacity. Without intervention, the increase in airflow would have pushed it beyond stable operating limits, leading to higher differential pressure, unstable cleaning behaviour, and an increased risk of breaching emissions regulations. Engineering analysis indicated that a structural upgrade or replacement would be required, at an estimated cost of around US$1 million and with a project timeline of more than eight months. In addition to the capital outlay, the plant would face extended downtime, construction complexity, and operational disruption.
What is really limiting performance?
More capacity, same footprint
The solution was to increase filtration surface area from within. Conventional round filter bags were replaced with PrimaFlow™ extended-surface elements designed with a multi-lobe geometry (Figure 1). This configuration significantly increases the effective filtration area while fitting within the same space and remaining compatible with the existing baghouse infrastructure. Because the retrofit worked within the existing casing, tube sheet, and cleaning system, it avoided the need for structural modification entirely. From a practical perspective, this transformed the nature of the project from a major capital upgrade into a targeted engineering intervention. From a performance standpoint, the impact was equally significant. Increasing Figure 1. Cleanova PrimaFlow™ extended surface the filtration area reduced the air-to-cloth filter elements, featuring patented multi-lobe ratio, restoring stable operating conditions geometry, increase the effective surface area within even at higher gas flows. The improved the same footprint. 64
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internal flow dynamics also allowed gas to pass through the system more efficiently, reducing resistance and lowering energy demand. Crucially, this was not simply a component change. Rather than forcing more performance out of the same configuration, the filter system was fundamentally rebalanced.
Implementation without disruption
One of the most compelling aspects of this approach is how it translates into execution. The retrofit filter elements were delivered within eight weeks and installed during a scheduled four-day shutdown. No modifications were required to the baghouse casing, tube sheet, or cleaning manifolds, eliminating the need for civil works or extended outages. Commissioning focused on refining cleaning parameters to align with the new filtration conditions. Pulse pressure and cleaning frequency were gradually reduced, while monitoring differential pressure and emissions performance, ensuring that the system operated within an optimal range. For plant operators, this meant that performance improvements could be realised quickly and with minimal operational risk. This is in stark contrast to the uncertainty and disruption associated with large-scale upgrades.
Three gains, delivered together
The results of the retrofit provide a clear demonstration that the traditional trade-offs between productivity, cost, and environmental performance can be overcome. Following commissioning, the baghouse achieved stable operation at both normal and peak production rates, supporting a 24% increase in process gas flow. At the same time, the air-to-cloth ratio was reduced by 53%, restoring stable filtration conditions and improving overall system reliability. The economic impact was equally impressive. The retrofit investment was less than US$77 000, compared to an estimated US$1.1 million for a structural upgrade. In addition to this substantial reduction in capital outlay, operational costs were reduced through lower energy consumption. Fan power demand decreased by approximately one-third, while compressed air usage for cleaning was also reduced. These initial capital and operating cost benefits were complemented by measurable improvements in system efficiency, enhancing total cost of ownership (TCO). Cleaning frequency was reduced by 40%, and lower pulse pressures decreased mechanical stress on the filter media.
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This contributed to longer filter life and reduced maintenance requirements. At the same time, improved particulate capture increased emissions margins, strengthening compliance confidence (Figure 2). What distinguishes these results is that they were achieved simultaneously. Increased throughput did not result in higher energy use or accelerated wear. Lower costs were not achieved at the expense of performance. Improved environmental outcomes did not require additional capital investment. Instead, each improvement reinforced the others, creating a more efficient and more stable system overall.
Industry-wide relevance
challenges, often addressed through capital-intensive upgrades. This case suggests an alternative path (Table 1). By focusing on the fundamentals of filtration design – particularly surface area and flow dynamics – it is possible to unlock additional capacity within existing assets. This reduces the need for structural expansion and enables performance improvements to be delivered at much lower cost and with less disruption. Viewed in this context, filtration is no longer just a compliance function; it is a lever for broader operational optimisation.
Redefining what performance means
As industries face increasing pressure to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact, the ability to deliver multiple gains simultaneously becomes a critical advantage. Solutions that can increase output while reducing energy use and extending equipment life are no longer incremental improvements – they represent a step change in performance. This requires a change in mindset. The traditional trade-offs between productivity, cost, and environmental performance are not fixed constraints. Instead of viewing productivity, cost, and sustainability as competing priorities, engineers and operators should view them as interconnected outcomes of better system design. The data from the cement baghouse project demonstrates that a targeted filtration retrofit can increase throughput, reduce both capital and Figure 2. All key performance indicators improved simultaneously operating costs, and following the baghouse filtration retrofit. There were no trade-offs improve environmental between productivity, cost, and environmental performance. performance – all within the same system, and all at the Table 1. Comparative evaluation of structural upgrade and same time. With a deeper retrofit solutions across key operational and economic understanding of system parameters. dynamics and a focus on optimisation rather than Parameter Traditional structural upgrade Retrofit with PrimaFlow™ expansion, this proves it is Capital possible to redefine what ~US$1.1 million < US$77 000 investment existing assets can deliver. As operational demands Implementation 8 weeks delivery, 4 days > 8 months time installation continue to evolve, the opportunity lies not in Major construction, extended No structural changes, Plant disruption always building new downtime minimal disruption capacity, but in unlocking Performance Increased capacity, lower more from what is already in Increased capacity, higher OPEX outcome OPEX, improved place. Although this project was carried out in a cement plant, the underlying principles apply across a wide range of industrial sectors. Many facilities are operating with legacy filtration systems that are being asked to handle conditions far beyond their original design parameters. Increasing throughput, reducing energy consumption, and meeting stricter environmental standards are common
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World Cement November 2026
Ana Esther Goncalves and Tim Nowack, Christian Pfeiffer, explore how ball mill process instability impacts cement quality and how considering crucial variables can lead to higher value optimisation.
he most relevant mortar and concrete properties normally include compressive strength development, setting behaviour, water demand, workability, and consistency. For precast concrete, high early strength can be particularly important because it allows earlier demoulding and shorter production cycles. Ready-mix concrete producers generally require predictable strength together with
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stable water demand, workability, and setting behaviour. For general construction cement, later-age strength and overall consistency may have greater importance. Other applications may impose additional requirements related to rheology, heat development, or specific setting characteristics. The purpose of cement quality control is to ensure that the cement performs as required when it is used in mortar or concrete, which is the main aspect perceived by the end customer. The grinding circuit is therefore not operated simply to achieve a predefined Blaine value or sieve residue. Its operational quality targets should be derived from the performance required from the final product. Once these requirements are defined, the suitable measurable properties can be defined as operational indicators for the purpose of quality control. Operational measurements should be frequent enough to detect a deviation before a large quantity of off-specification cement is produced. Fast and well-established measurements, such as Blaine and sieve residue, are normally the selected methods for frequent checks during production. However, two cement samples with the same Blaine or residue values can contain different proportions of coarse and fine particles and consequently behave differently in mortar or concrete. Laser-measured particle size distribution (PSD) provides considerably more information about the proportions of coarse, intermediate, and fine particles. It can be measured less frequently unless online PSD equipment is available, but should be checked
regularly and whenever unusual behaviour is detected. For example, if strength testing and PSD analysis show that a particular cement consistently meets its application requirements within a defined range of Blaine and coarse residue, this range can be used for routine grinding control. If later testing shows that the PSD or product performance has changed while Blaine remains constant, the operational target must be reassessed. Therefore, the operational quality targets should not become a permanent setting, but rather, a periodically revised value based on the required mortar and concrete performances. More complete quality control can combine PSD with X-ray analysis that provides chemical (via fluorescence) and mineralogical (via diffractometry) information, which will allow a better control over the cement composition and its consequential impact on final product quality. Setting and strength tests provide slower feedback and are therefore better suited to validating whether the operational targets continue to represent the required product performance. A mill circuit is a dynamic system and continually responds to variations in the feed and operating conditions. For this reason, process stability for cement grinding does not mean that every operating value remains constant during the full operation. A stable process is one in which these variations remain controlled, and the circuit returns to a consistent operating condition. Allowing large oscillations can result in a continuously changing circulating load, mill filling, and classification conditions. The laboratory results then represent a condition that may already have changed by the time the result becomes available. Operators can prevent many avoidable disturbances by applying a few consistent practices: f Follow trends instead of reacting to individual measurements. f Identify what changed before correcting the resulting process response. f Avoid making aggressive process corrections or several major adjustments simultaneously. f Allow sufficient circuit response time after a change. f Record significant operating adjustments and material changes. A mill circuit is a dynamic system and continually responds f Keep the process under to variations in the feed and operating conditions. established equipment and 68
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quality limits during start-up, shutdown, and product transitions. f Inform the technical team when the same correction is repeatedly required, as this may indicate a persistent mechanical, material, or control problem. The technical team should support stable operation by maintaining reliable sampling and calibrated instrumentation; monitoring long-term process and quality trends; periodically checking separator performance; inspecting grinding media and diaphragms; and communicating expected changes in clinker or cement composition to production personnel.
Main causes of process instability Changes in clinker grindability or feed size Clinker properties can vary because of changes in raw material, burning conditions, and cooling conditions that affect its mineralogy and physical characteristics. A sudden increase in hardness or feed size reduces the rate at which material is broken inside the first chamber. Coarser material consequently reaches the separator, causing separator rejects to increase. If the feed rate is maintained, despite the increase in grindability, the amount of material going through the mill gradually rises. This can also lead to the
circuit becoming overloaded, and cement PSD moving outside its normal range. Typical indications are increasing separator reject or elevator load, increasing mill differential pressure, and, consequently, changes in quality results. The appropriate response is to temporarily reduce feed rate to protect the circuit. Separator and mill ventilation adjustments may support operation, but they should not be used to conceal a persistent reduction in grinding capacity. Long-term changes in clinker grindability may require reassessment of the ball charge; mill settings, like total feed rate; or production target. Changes in cement component proportions Changes in clinker, gypsum, limestone, or supplementary cementitious material dosing alter both cement composition and grinding behaviour. Because the different components normally have different grindabilities, a composition change can modify the PSD, even when total feed and Blaine remain similar. Incorrect gypsum dosing can additionally affect setting behaviour independently of grinding fineness. The worst consequence is cement that meets the mill's fineness target but fails its chemical, setting, strength, or other performance requirements. A dosing or recipe problem should be corrected at its source. Separator speed or mill feed should not be used to compensate for an incorrect cement composition.
Clinker properties can vary because of changes in raw material, burning conditions and cooling conditions that affect its mineralogy and physical characteristics. Source: Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT (2011): Clinker Grinding at Breaking Point, Research Profile Letter, May 2011; experimental data adapted from Tokyay (1999). 70
Changes in feed moisture Severe moisture conditions can cause extensive coating or material accumulation, and eventually restrict the circuit sufficiently to require a production reduction or shut down for cleaning. This can be identified by increasing differential pressure, changes in separator reject load, changes in mill outlet temperature, as well as changes in the mill noise or an abnormal and consistent reduction in the mill power intake. The response should focus on restoring adequate drying and ventilation conditions. Feed rate may need to be temporarily reduced when the available drying capacity is insufficient. World Cement November 2026
Diaphragm blockage or wear Blocked diaphragm openings restrict material flow. Material accumulates upstream, increasing retention and filling of the first chamber. Excessive diaphragm wear can create the opposite problem by allowing material to pass under inappropriate conditions and, in severe cases, allowing unwanted grinding media migration. Changes in differential pressure, mill sound, and power drawn can indicate the problem, but confirmation generally requires inspection. If there is evidence of significant blockage or damage, the equipment condition must be immediately inspected and corrected. Nips, steel scrap from feed material, or broken grinding media are different reasons for blocking, requiring different measures. Peening over of slots is also a common scenario. Grinding media and liner wear Grinding media and liners change gradually rather than suddenly, but their deterioration can progressively move the circuit away from its previous stable operating range. Loss of the required ball size distribution reduces the balance between coarse breakage and fine grinding. The effect often comes in the form of gradually declining production at the same cement quality, changing PSD, or a need for progressively more aggressive separator settings. Regular ball charge measurements, media top-up, and inspection of liners should, therefore, form part of preventive process control, rather than waiting for a significant production loss. Changes in ventilation or gas conditions Changes in fan performance, dampers, bag filter resistance, false-air ingress, or gas temperature can alter the gas flow through the mill and separator. Insufficient ventilation reduces the removal of heat and fine particles, internal temperature increases, and coating of sticky material to ball charge and shell liners can become more severe. High cement temperatures can also increase the risk of excessive gypsum dehydration, which may affect setting behaviour. Excessive or poorly distributed airflow can also change material transport and separator classification. Relevant indicators include circuit pressures, fan load, mill outlet temperature, and separator reject behaviour. A manual measurement of the airflow can be done to support the diagnosis, and it is important to keep periodic measurements to create references and identify changes faster.
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Here, the issue can be addressed by manual action, such as the operator changing the fan speed, or a consequence of another primary cause. In the first case, the operator should correct the fan speed or damper position. Otherwise, the real origin of the problem must be investigated further. Sudden changes in fresh feed rate A rapid feed increase introduces material faster than the circuit can reach a new equilibrium. In the meantime, material accumulates inside the mill, the separator receives more material, and the reject stream can rise considerably, further increasing the total mill feed and intensifying the effect. Mill differential pressure, elevator current, and separator load normally respond to the disturbance. Product sieve residues may also increase if classification or grinding capacity becomes limiting. In the worst case, the mill or elevator can become overloaded or the circuit can trip. A sudden feed reduction produces the opposite disturbance. The mill may become underloaded and operate inefficiently, while cement can become unnecessarily fine. Feed changes should therefore be gradual whenever possible. Following a major change, the operator should allow sufficient time for the material already inside the circuit to respond before making another large adjustment.
Attempting to maximise either production or quality while neglecting stability can eventually result in off-specification cement, reduced production, excessive energy consumption, accumulation of material inside the circuit, or even an equipment trip. Optimisation should normally be performed from a stable baseline, allied with small, controlled changes, and followed by sufficient observation time. Automation can be a valuable ally for both maintaining process stability and keeping the performance optimised. At the simplest level, PID controllers can maintain individual variables, such as feed rate, pressure, airflow, or temperature, around predefined setpoints with gradual changes. More complex model-predictive systems can consider several interacting variables and constraints simultaneously to make coordinated changes. At the highest level, AI models can identify operating patterns, predict deviations, or recommend improved setpoints.
Conclusion
Stable grinding is the operating condition that allows the grinding circuit to produce cement consistently and at the highest sustainable production rate within the required quality limits. Within the mill, stability depends on maintaining the balance between grinding, material transport, and classification. Changes in Combining stability and optimisation clinker properties, feed conditions, composition, A stable mill can still be inefficient. moisture, ventilation, separator operation, or Optimisation means finding a better equipment condition disturb this balance and operating condition, while continuing to produce measurable responses throughout the respect product-quality and equipment limits. circuit at any time. Recognising the difference Increasing production without protecting between the original disturbance and its product quality can increase the coarse consequences is fundamental. fraction or otherwise change the PSD Circulating load, mill filling, differential sufficiently to affect strength and other cement pressure, temperature, and power are valuable properties. Maintaining quality by unnecessary indicators, but correcting them without overgrinding may produce compliant cement, identifying the root cause of the change can but at reduced output and increased specific move the disturbance elsewhere in the process. energy consumption. Potentially, this can cause an important issue to be neglected, leading to more severe damage in the future. Once the circuit is stable, optimisation can be used to increase production or reduce energy consumption while maintaining the established quality requirements. Reliable instrumentation, suitable automation, and informed operator supervision all provide the basis for maintaining that condition over Christian Pfeiffer lining for the first and second compartments. long production periods. 72
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Cengiz Yilmaz, KISSsoft, explains how standardised data exchange enables engineers to reducing manual reconstruction efforts, improve consistency, and support more efficient design. earboxes in the cement industry operate under demanding conditions. The different applications require compact and powerful transmissions capable of transmitting high torque while maintaining the required speed ratio. The heavy-duty gearboxes can combine several gear stages, shafts and bearings in a single system. From an engineering perspective, the individual components are only part of the picture. Their connections
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and relationships define the complete gearbox topology and kinematic structure. This system-level information becomes particularly relevant when a gearbox model needs to be used beyond the environment in which it was originally created. A model that has already been carefully defined does not necessarily need to be recreated from scratch for every subsequent engineering task. But how can the complete system structure be transferred reliably between different software applications?
Figure 1. Sketcher view of the vertical roller mill gearbox model in KISSsoft System Module.
Figure 2. 3D view of the vertical roller mill gearbox built in KISSsoft System Module. 74
This is the challenge addressed by standardised engineering data exchange.
From component calculations to complete system models
KISSsoft provides engineers with tools for the design and calculation of machine elements and transmission systems. Individual components such as gears, shafts and bearings can be designed and analysed using international standards and dedicated calculation methods. The System Module complements these component-level calculations with a system-oriented view. It allows individual machine elements to be combined into a complete gearbox model and describes how they are connected within the transmission. Additionally, it gives an overview of the gearbox in a 3D viewer and provides results for system level calculations such as strength, power loss and dynamics. For a complex industrial gearbox, this system perspective is essential. Consider a simplified vertical roller mill drive consisting of a bevel gear stage followed by planetary stages. The gearbox cannot be adequately described by the individual gear geometries alone. The connections between the stages, the shafts and bearings, the resulting power flow and acting loads are all part of the system definition. The System Module therefore represents the gearbox as an interconnected system rather than simply as a collection of individual calculations. This also raises an important question: how can this complete system model be exchanged with another software environment while preserving its structure?
A standardised representation
The FVA research association developed REXS, which stands for 'Reusable Engineering Exchange Standard'. It defines a neutral format for exchanging gearbox engineering data between different software applications. The standard provides a common representation for gearbox systems, independent of the internal data structures used by individual software products. REXS uses XML or JSON to store the relevant information in a structured and standardised form. The focus on the system level is particularly important. A gearbox contains not only component parameters but also relationships between components. These relationships need to be represented if another application is to reconstruct the corresponding system. REXS therefore provides a common basis for describing the elements of a gearbox and their connections. World Cement November 2026
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Cooling
Packing & Palletizing
REXS in operation
The System Module of KISSsoft 2026 introduces support for the REXS standard. Compatible with REXS version 1.7, the implementation makes engineering workflows more flexible. The current implementation covers gearbox system definitions including cylindrical, bevel, planetary and worm gears, as well as shafts, bearings and external loads. Using the standardised XML format, the complete kinematic structure and gearbox topology can be imported into or exported from the KISSsoft System Module. The exchange is therefore not limited to individual gear data. The system information required to establish the overall gearbox structure is also part of the process. The REXS specification also includes possibilities for representing more advanced
engineering information, such as materials, switching states, load spectra and flank modifications.
A vertical roller mill (VRM) as an example
To illustrate the concept, consider a gearbox for a vertical roller mill. The motor provides the input power, which is transmitted through the gearbox to the mill table. A bevel stage can be used to change the direction of the power flow, while subsequent planetary stages provide the required speed reduction and transmit the high output torque. A simplified representation might therefore look like: Motor > bevel stage > planetary stage > planetary stage > mill table Behind this relatively simple schematic is a much more detailed system definition. The gearbox contains individual gears, shafts and bearings, and the components are connected according to a specific topology. In the KISSsoft System Module, these elements form one complete system model. The model structure can be created in a convenient way using the sketcher (Figure 1). It allows to create shafts and add the relevant components using the mouse as if sketching on a paper with a pen. A well-structured user interface allows users to define load data (e.g. input speed and torque), operating conditions (e.g. temperatures and lubricants), and calculation settings. Figure 3. Importing a REXS file to KISSsoft System The detailed geometry data can then be Module. entered using the respective component modules of KISSsoft. Figure 2 shows how a finished gearbox model of an example vertical roller mill would look in the KISSsoft System Module. Now imagine that the same gearbox has been defined in another REXS-compatible engineering application. Instead of manually recreating the system in KISSsoft, the available information can be provided through a REXS XML file. The KISSsoft System Module can read this information and use it to establish the corresponding gearbox system. This is where system-level Figure 4. Example REXS file of the vertical roller mill gearbox exchange becomes exported from KISSsoft System Module. 76
World Cement November 2026
particularly valuable. For a small gearbox, manually entering the components and connections may be manageable. For a large industrial transmission, however, the number of elements and relationships can grow quickly. The more complex the gearbox becomes, the more useful it is to have a standardised representation of the complete system.
Importing a model
During an import, the REXS file acts as the link between the external system model and KISSsoft. The information describing the supported gearbox components is interpreted by the KISSsoft System Module and used to create the corresponding system elements. The relations between these elements establish the gearbox topology, while the available load data defines how the gearbox is operated. For the VRM (Vertical Roller Mill) example, this means that the imported model can represent the complete arrangement of the bevel and planetary stages together with the associated shafts and bearings. The engineer can then continue working with the resulting system in KISSsoft.
Exporting a model
The data flow can also go in the opposite direction. A gearbox system created in the KISSsoft System Module can be exported as a REXS XML file. The resulting file can then be used by another compatible engineering application. This can be useful when a gearbox model created in KISSsoft becomes part of a larger engineering workflow. The KISSsoft system model does not have to remain isolated within one software environment; its standardised representation can be made available to other tools that support the corresponding REXS information. For example, the system model of the cement mill gearbox could be transferred to another engineering application for further system-level investigation. The exact data available to the receiving application depends on the respective REXS implementation. Nevertheless, the standardised representation provides a defined basis for the exchange (Figure 4).
Beyond one application
The same principle can be applied to other complex gearbox systems found in the cement industry. Vertical roller mills are one example, but gearboxes are also used in applications such as ball mills, roller presses, rotary kilns and material-handling equipment. 78
The gearbox architecture can vary considerably between these applications. What they have in common is that their system behaviour depends on the interaction of multiple components. This is also where the possibility of exchanging system models with other engineering environments becomes relevant. Depending on the respective software and REXS implementation, the standardised model can form part of workflows involving FEM (finite-element methods), MBS (multi-body simulations) or other CAE tools. The important aspect is not the individual software application but the ability to retain the relevant system information as the model moves through the engineering process.
More time for engineering
For engineers, the practical advantage of standardised system data exchange is straightforward: information that has already been created can be reused. Without a standardised representation, transferring a complex gearbox between software environments can require dedicated interfaces or manual reconstruction. Every manually recreated component and connection introduces additional effort and potentially another source of inconsistencies and errors. For a gearbox with only a few components, this may seem like a minor benefit. For large industrial transmissions, the difference can become much more significant. The benefit also extends to collaborative engineering. Different departments or external partners can work with their preferred engineering tools while using a common representation of the gearbox system where compatible REXS implementations are available. The gearbox remains the same. The way engineers can work with its model becomes more flexible.
About the author
Cengiz Yilmaz holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich and has been working at KISSsoft AG for more than 12 years. As Product Manager of the System Module, he combines in-depth technical expertise with extensive practical experience in supporting customers, delivering software training, and providing engineering consultancy. Through his direct involvement in engineering projects and close collaboration with customers across a wide range of industries, he has developed a deep understanding of practical engineering challenges and the importance of efficient, integrated workflows in modern gearbox development. World Cement November 2026
Ed Ford and Leonardo Verniani, MAPEI Corporation, discuss the challenges associated with bag filling operations, the company's longstanding collaboration with ARODO, and its plans to install a new packing system next year.
What challenges will you be able to tackle with the upcoming equipment?
“We are packing all our product lines on ARODO equipment, from mortars, through to thin-sets, self-levellers, and grouts. These products all have very different granulometry and a wide colour range. The ARODO machines are designed to minimise the cleaning procedures and the adjustment of the software parameters to the different physical properties of our products,” Ed Ford, MAPEI’s Associate Director of Operations, explains. From a legislative perspective, the OSHA Final Rule (2016) reduced the exposure level
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of respirable crystalline silica. MAPEI’s offering of products in ARODO bags provided an advantage over most of their competition when it came to meeting those requirements. From an industry perspective, many of their customer’s job sites do not have protective storage for construction products during the site work and the products are stored outside. The ARODO packaged products are able to be stored outside, open to the elements, and still perform on the job site.
Why did you choose this technology?
“Prior to using the ARODO technology, we packaged our cementitious products in paper bags that were prone to leakage. The leakage was especially apparent with fine, dark grouts. That was causing a difficulty in the stores of our customers, creating additional clean-up work for their work associates, and impacting customer experience and sales. Consequently, we began exploring packaging solutions that could better address the market needs while providing a more durable and reliable package for our products” recounts Leonardo Verniani, Corporate Engineering and Maintenance Manager. The high quality of the machines and the extended shelf-life of the packaged powders were the main reasons for choosing the AROVAC technology at the start of the collaboration. Some 20 years later, these reasons still hold true for MAPEI. “Over the years there have been several improvements to the design of the machines to increase the quality of the packaging and the reliability of the components,” Verniani continues.
How did the two companies first get in touch?
“We worked with our Italian colleagues to identify form, fill, and seal technology that would eliminate the leakage issue and learned that ARODO offered a solution that could meet our supply needs. In addition to addressing the leaking issue, ARODO was also offering a vacuumed solution to improve the
shelf life of our product; the packaging was also well shaped and compacted, improving the appearance of the bag on the pallet and on customer’s shelves. These were additional points for ARODO during the selection process” says Ed Ford, Associate Director of Operations.
When was this filling line technology first deployed?
MAPEI purchased its first filling line from ARODO in 2007. The company needed to package its products in plastic bags. Product leakage and the watertight nature of the bags were the main reasons for this choice. At the time, MAPEI tested the quality of the produced bags by putting them fully under water and checked the water ingress by cutting open the bag. The first machine ARODO built for MAPEI was a second-generation AROVAC 400. The name AROVAC refers to the in-house developed vacuum technology for hygroscopic powders. To date, ARODO remains the only company offering vacuum technology in this way. “Many fine powders trap air during packaging. This air slowly escapes from the powder after packaging. The remaining air must then be vented out through the packaging. When the product needs to be protected from moisture, the air vents in the bag are kept to a minimum. This, in turn, means that the product must contain only a very small amount of residual air. “To avoid these difficulties, vacuum packaging is a more reliable solution. The residual air is removed to such an extent that a bag without perforations can still be stacked perfectly. An additional advantage of this method is that no pressure is exerted on the packaging after filling, in contrast to the pressure required for bags from which the air must be forced out. This results in packaging that is subject to fewer requirements and leads to savings on packaging material. Result: savings on packaging material, moisture- and water-resistant packaging, and improved palletisation” continues Frank Goris, Head of Customer Center of Excellence at ARODO.
How do you look back on the partnership over all these years?
The AROVAC 1000 is scheduled to be operational in June 2027. 80
“The first installations were obviously more challenging, being new equipment that involved a learning curve for both companies, from fabrication through shipment and installation. With time, we both became more familiar improving the project execution time. Most of our plants installed a second machine few years after the start-up of the first one,” recounts Verniani. “Thanks to an open and constructive cooperation with ARODO, the MAPEI engineers and technicians could experiment and transfer suggestions and ideas between teams, contributing to the improvement of the machines” Ford adds. World Cement November 2026
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Matt Delpizzo, Delta Ducon, delves into the engineering physics behind rotary valve failure in abrasive environments and explains how the rapid deployment of extreme duty rotary valves for a critical situation stabilised a facility at short notice. n the high-stakes world of bulk material handling, equipment failure is not just an inconvenience – it is a financial haemorrhage. This case study details how Delta Ducon intervened during a critical start-up failure at a major US based fly ash beneficiation plant. When a rotary valve failed, due to the extreme abrasiveness of beneficiated ash, Delta Ducon engineered, rebuilt, and deployed a replacement in under one week, enabling the facility the ability to start up prior to the new year.
The rise of fly ash beneficiation
To understand the severity of this failure, it is important to understand the process. Fly ash beneficiation is rapidly becoming one of the most vital sectors in the construction materials industry. As coal-fired power generation declines, the supply of fresh, ‘spec-grade’ fly ash – a critical ingredient in concrete production – has tightened.
To fill this void, the industry has turned to harvesting and reclaiming legacy ash stored in landfills and wet ponds. This process, often called pond ash recovery, involves: � Excavation: Dredging or digging wet ash from retention ponds. � Beneficiation: Aggressive processing, including screening, carbon separation (to lower Loss on Ignition/LOI), and thermal drying. � Transport: Moving the finished, dry powder to storage silos. The result is a highly valuable, sustainable pozzolan that meets ASTM C618 standards. However, unlike fresh fly ash, beneficiated ash is often coarser, hotter, and chemically aggressive. It presents a material handling nightmare that exposes the weaknesses in standard off-the-shelf components.
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The challenge: Critical failure
It was mid-December, a week or so week before the Christmas holiday shutdown, when a large-scale beneficiation facility in the Southern United States experienced a catastrophic valve failure. The customer had recently commissioned a new process line, designed to feed dried, beneficiated fly ash into a conveying system. For the primary feed device – the ‘heart’ of the material flow – they had installed a standard rotary airlock. Almost immediately upon start-up, the valve began to fail. The dried ash, acting like a sandblaster, scoured the rotor tips and housing and bogged down the valve, tripping the motor, and preventing material feed. The system was shut down, leading to the entire process being brought to a halt. With the holidays and New Year approaching and contractual production targets looming, the plant manager was out of options. They needed a valve that could withstand the abrasion, however, lead times for custom heavy-duty valves are typically several weeks.
The solution
A Delta Ducon representative received the emergency call. Understanding the gravity of the situation, the request was immediately escalated to engineering and operations leadership. It was not possible to cast and assemble a new valve within a week. However, it was possible to install an older 18 in. Extreme Duty Rotary Valve that had been recovered from a decommissioned manufacturing facility. Despite its age, the valve was still structurally sound and durable. The process followed these 5 stages: f Strip and analyse: The vintage valve was stripped to its casting. f Re-machining: The housing bore and end covers were inspected and prepped. f Rotor rebuild: A new Extreme Duty Rotor and Wear Shoe were installed. f Paint and guarding: A fresh coat of paint and new guards and mounts were installed. f Testing: The unit underwent rigorous testing of the clearances and mechanical components (motor/gearbox & drive). A process that typically takes several weeks was completed in a few days. The valve was shipped ‘hot shot’ i.e. direct freight, arriving just before the Christmas holidays.
The technology: Why some valves fail
Standard rotary valves are typically cast or fabricated from cast iron or stainless steel. While these materials are non- to moderately-abrasive, they have a very low hardness range. Fly ash contains silica and alumina, which are harder than standard steel. When this abrasiveness is combined with the rotating action of the rotor, it cuts grooves into the metal, destroying the valve in hours or days. This abrasive wear is amplified 84
even more when there is a differential pressure present.
The difference
The unit supplied was not a standard valve; it was a Delta Ducon PERMA/flo Extreme Series, specifically engineered for abrasive heavy industries like: Cement, mining, minerals processing, steel, building products and power generation. Construction material and design The core differentiator is metallurgy and design. The Extreme Rotary Valve utilises P-33 chrome-iron alloy in the rotor and separate wear shoe. Because the rotor seals against the shoe and not directly against the housing, the lifespan of the valve is extended. Additionally, the rotor and shoe are adjustable, so when wear does occur, maintenance personal can simply adjust the rotor shoe clearances in the field. P-33 alloy boasts a hardness of over 550 Brinell (40 to 60 Rockwell), which is roughly three times harder than standard stainless steel. This results in the housing and wear components resisting the scouring action of the ash Built for abrasion Most rotary valves have a cylindrical housing. Once the inside of the housing wears out, the entire valve body must be scrapped. The Delta Ducon Extreme valve features a replaceable internal Wear Shoe. This component takes the brunt of the material impact and abrasion, and is made from P-33 alloy. Therefore, when wear eventually occurs, in most cases, the valve does not need to be replaced, with only the rotor and shoe needing replacement. This significantly lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO). Field adjustable rotor In abrasive applications, rotor tips will eventually wear. Conventionally, worn tips mean the system must be dismantled and the valve sent out for repair, but, in this case, the entire rotor is adjustable and can be adjusted in the field without removing the rotor. Maintenance teams can restore tight clearances in minutes, extending the valve's life cycle. High-temperature & pressure resilience Engineered to operate continuously at temperatures up to 800˚F (427˚C), this makes it well suited for hot ash coming directly from dryers or calciners. Its capability of handling pressure differentials over 15 PSIG also allows it to feed pneumatic conveying systems with ease.
Pneumatic conveying systems
Delta Ducon designs both dilute phase and dense phase systems, tailored to the plant's requirements and the material's specific needs. f Dilute phase (high velocity): Due to the equipment's design, dilute phase systems World Cement November 2026
f f f f
commonly handle abrasive materials in a dilute phase environment. Dense phase (low velocity): Ideal for longer distances and high volume. Truck and railcar unloading and load out systems. Advanced injection technology for baghouse, furnace, boiler, and kilns. Dosing and blending systems for accurate material blend, feed, and transfer into process.
The result
The 18 in. Extreme Duty Rotary Valve was installed immediately upon arrival at the plant and the start-up procedure was re-initiated. The customer was satisfied with the overall build quality of the valve. Fortunately, it met the exact volumetric feed rate requirements. Start-up was then re-initiated and operations ran continuously throughout the Christmas break and into the New Year. What began as a potential disaster turned into a validation of quality engineering.
Conclusion: When the clock is ticking
For abrasive materials like fly ash, limestone, and cement, do not compromise on metallurgy. Specify P-33 Alloy and its 550+ Brinell hardness. To increase maintainability, look for field-adjustable and replaceable rotors and separate wear shoes to extend service life. Additionally, it is important to partner with experts by choosing a supplier that understands the physics of pneumatic conveying and material science.
In the era of AI-driven procurement and automated supply chains, the human element of engineering – the ability to diagnose, adapt, and mobilise – remains irreplaceable. This case study demonstrates the importance of using that human element to deliver more than just systems and equipment. Instead, offering solutions that not only provide operational success, but also allow workers to get home in time for Christmas. Whether retrofitting a plant, designing a new green-field beneficiation facility, or managing an emergency breakdown, the cost of equipment is insignificant compared to the cost of downtime.
About the author
Matthew DelPizzo is the Vice President of Delta Ducon, LLC, bringing nearly 30 years of bulk material handling expertise to industrial sectors like cement, mining, building products, plastics, steel, pulp & paper, and power generation. Starting his career as an Assistant Sales Associate/Sales Representative, Matt is a dedicated solutions provider specialising in pneumatic conveying systems, system retrofits, and process optimisation. He partners closely with customers across every operational tier – from corporate executive leadership to plant management, maintenance, and engineering teams – to solve complex manufacturing challenges and drive long-term operational efficiency.
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Retsch explores how sampling, analysis, and process development are advancing high-value concrete upcycling for the cement industry. epresentative sampling, sample processing, and targeted analysis are essential to convert heterogeneous concrete waste streams into qualified secondary raw materials and low-carbon SCM for the cement industry. At the everox Garden R&D centre in Rotterdam, Retsch supports the characterisation, process, and evaluation of demolition concrete with laboratory technology. This provides the data basis for high-value material loops involving aggregates, sand, and cementitious fine fractions. For the cement and concrete industry, concrete waste is both a major waste stream and a potential secondary raw-material source. With the everox process, concrete waste is separated into four high-quality substitutes for gravel, sand, and most importantly clinker. This approach offers a perspective for improving sustainability in an industry responsible for approximately 8% of the global CO2 footprint. At the same time, the global volume of waste concrete is estimated at over 3.5 million tpy and is largely downcycled or landfilled.
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Representative sampling, controlled sample processing, and robust analytical data are decisive for both quality control of the concrete waste and the recovered materials. At the everox Garden R&D centre, demolition concrete waste from different regions and applications is analysed with regards to their upcycling potential. Retsch GmbH provides equipment and expertise for controlled crushing, homogenisation, and classification of heterogeneous samples into defined particle-size fractions. The equipment chain – a jaw crusher, drum mill, and vibratory sieve shaker – supports both preparatory laboratory work and decisions on separation strategy, product yield, and quality assurance. For recycling plant operators, demolition contractors, and cement manufacturers, availability alone is not enough. Composition, variability, contaminant content, and technically achievable recovery options determine the economic value of a concrete waste stream. A robust material forecast can therefore inform economic assessments and quality-management requirements before a processing plant is planned or scaled.
From heterogeneous demolition material to a representative sample Demolition concrete can vary substantially in: f Original concrete mix design. f Age of concrete. f Moisture content. f Degree of carbonation.
f f f f
Proportion of adhering cement paste. Aggregate type. Service exposure. Possible contaminants.
A sample can only provide reliable information about an entire material stream if the sampling approach systematically reflects this heterogeneity. In practice, this begins with a documented sampling plan. It should capture the origin and size of the lot, demolition section, sampling locations and times, moisture condition, visual observations, and conspicuous constituents. Spatially or temporally distributed incremental samples are combined into a composite sample. For stockpiles, potential segregation must be considered: Sampling only the surface or one particle-size zone can distort the composition of the whole lot. The objective is a composite sample that adequately represents the average properties of the material stream. EN 932-1 describes procedures for sampling from deliveries, processing plants, and stockpiles, as well as for sample reduction. The specific approach must nevertheless be adapted to particle size, heterogeneity, and intended use. At the everox Garden, samples from customers, demolition companies and industry partners in various countries are analysed. The investigations are intended to assess the technical and economic potential of a concrete-waste stream before industrial upcycling, including the potential
Visual inspection of demolition concrete 88
World Cement November 2026
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recovery of coarse and fine aggregates and cementitious fine fractions.
A technology enabler along the data chain
Several preparation steps lie between a composite sample and a usable analytical result, and each can affect data validity. Sample preparation must be traceable, reproducible, and tailored to the analytical objective. Key requirements include recovery of relevant material fractions, prevention of cross-contamination, and adequate homogenisation before sample division. At the everox Garden, the Retsch equipment chain comprises the Jaw Crusher BB 250, Drum Mill TM 500 and Vibratory Sieve Shaker AS 450 control. Together, these instruments allow concrete samples to be prepared step by step and defined particle-size ranges to be supplied for further investigation.
The jaw crusher first reduces coarse concrete pieces to a manageable particle size and establishes a defined starting point. Depending on the analytical objective, the drum mill is used for further comminution or homogenisation. The vibratory sieve shaker then classifies the material into defined particle-size fractions. This differentiation is important: Grinding changes the particle-size distribution and can liberate particle agglomerates, while sieving separates the existing material into particle-size classes. Combining both steps under controlled conditions enables targeted examination of individual fractions and assessment of their suitability for specific recovery routes. Retsch thus serves as a technology enabler between sampling and process development. Its equipment supports a consistent data chain, linking input material, preparation parameters, particle-size distribution, and downstream analyses – particularly valuable when comparing materials from different regions, demolition projects, or building generations.
Fractionation as the basis for material-stream assessment
Jaw Crusher BB250. 90
Fractionation makes the complex composition of concrete waste accessible for evaluation. Depending on particle size, coarse and fine aggregates, quartz-rich fines, and cement paste-containing constituents can be examined separately. A documented particle-size distribution is more than a laboratory value: It links input material, separation strategy, and product specification. It can show where cementitious constituents are concentrated, how processing affects the mass balance, and which fractions may be suitable as aggregate, filler, or binder component. At the everox Garden, Retsch-supported preparation is combined with further laboratory analysis. This includes moisture determination, chemical composition, mineralogical phase analysis, density, water absorption, contaminant assessment, and binder-reactivity testing. Test selection should follow the intended application. For coarse recycled aggregates,
World Cement November 2026
particle shape, particle-size distribution, impurities and water absorption are key. For cementitious fine fractions, composition, reactive phases, fineness, and performance in a defined binder system are the relevant parameters. Results are comparable only when sample origin, pre-treatment, test method and reference basis are transparently documented. A standardised laboratory chain reduces the risk that apparent differences are caused by inconsistent sample preparation.
Operational benefits: Decisions before scale-up
Sampling and analysis are not limited to quality control in established processes. Before an investment or scale-up, they can help assess whether a material stream is suitable for high-value upcycling. A practical approach can be structured in 5 steps: f 1. Define the lot and sampling strategy: Record origin, material type, and potential contaminants. f 2. Document and combine incremental samples: Form a composite sample that reflects stream variability. f 3. Prepare samples in a controlled manner: Crush, homogenise, and classify using an analytical-fit equipment chain. f 4. Analyse by fraction: Align the testing program and key parameters with the intended application. f 5. Compare data with process and product requirements: Assess potential yields, quality windows, and necessary process parameters. Differences between laboratory projections and actual product yields should inform subsequent refinement of both the sampling plan, and process parameters. The result is a learning data chain from the first material sample to industrial production.
The exchange between everox and Retsch is intended to support reliable quality control and accelerate development of separation processes, sensor technology, and process control. For international, highly variable concrete streams, consistent data capture, and systematic verification of process assumptions are fundamental to scaling.
Activated cement paste as an additional binder resource
Whilst conventional concrete recycling concentrates largely on mineral aggregates, the everox process also recovers cement paste from concrete waste as a material source. The cement-rich fine fraction is processed into a reactive clinker substitute through crushing, ballistic separation, thermo-mechanical separation, and activation. everox refers to this product as activated cement paste (ACP) and classifies it as a reactive supplementary cementitious material (SCM). It also identifies recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), recycled fine aggregates (RFA) and fine inert filler (FIF) as product fractions. FIF is described as a quartz-rich fine material with particles smaller than 0.25 mm. Approximately 20% ACP can be recovered from one tonne of concrete waste. Strength activity index test results proved that the reactivity is constantly above 75%, being comparable to established cement-replacement materials, such as fly ash. Technical assessment requires clearly defined test conditions, including the reference binder, replacement level, water-to-binder ratio, fineness, test age, and fresh concrete strength and durability results. ACP can replace up to 35% of clinker, depending on the mix design and application. This does not replace suitability testing. Product specifications, conformity assessment, and applicable regulatory requirements remain decisive for industrial use.
Separating different fractions with Retsch AS 450 control. November 2026 World Cement
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Sampling and analysis as part of process control
For robust quality management, sampling and analysis should be integrated into process control, rather than treated as downstream laboratory tasks. This includes unambiguous batch identification, risk-based sampling intervals, documented acceptance criteria, regular cleaning, and verification of preparation equipment retained samples. As well as a data structure linking sample, analysis result, process parameters, and product fractions. With variable input materials, averages alone are insufficient. Ranges, outliers, and measurement uncertainties also matter for investment and production decisions. These uncertainties arise not only in analytical instruments but also from lot definition, the number and location of incremental samples, sample division, and preparation. Testing plans should, therefore, include target values and decision rules for borderline results: When is repeat testing required? When must a batch be treated separately? Which properties
exclude high-value use? This increases transparency for joint venture partners and off-takers, while supporting continuous improvement in separation efficiency, yield, and product specification.
Outlook
Decarbonising the cement and concrete industry requires parallel measures: Lower clinker content, alternative binder components, more efficient processes, and better use of available mineral resources. High-value concrete upcycling can contribute if material streams are reliably characterised, fractions selectively separated, and products demonstrably qualified. The everox Garden illustrates an approach that closely integrates laboratory analysis and process development. RETSCH provides a technology platform for controlled crushing, homogenisation, and classification. The practical conclusion is clear: The quality of a circular construction material begins not with the final product, but with a representative sample, reproducible sample processing, and a robust database.
everox material overview.
The everox process. 92
World Cement November 2026
Jessica Ballasi, SGS Beta, explains how Carbon-14 analysis is used to quantify emissions reductions and carbon removals. he cement industry is one of the most emissions-intensive industries in the world, accounting for 7 – 8% of global CO2 emissions. It is considered a hard-to-abate industry, as about 50 – 60% of its emissions come from CO2 that is produced during limestone calcination. Clinker production (the binding agent in cement) requires limestone (CaCO3) to be decomposed to lime (CaO). This process releases large amounts of CO2 in the reaction. Roughly half of cement’s CO2 comes from this calcination chemistry, with the rest from
burning fuel. It means that only 35 – 40% of cement emissions can be decarbonised by switching the fuel combusted from fossil fuels to biomass-derived fuels. Many countries around the world have stringent net-zero targets and emissions reporting programmes, putting pressure on the cement sector to decarbonise. This emphasises the importance of substituting fuels to achieve emission reductions, but also the need to deploy CCUS technologies to reduce emissions that cannot be avoided by switching to biomass-derived fuels.
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Carbon-14 applications for the cement sector
Biogenic carbon accounting is crucial when calculating emission reductions by using biomass-derived alternative fuels. The most accurate way to account for biogenic carbon content is by using Carbon-14 analysis. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope present in all living organisms. When a living organism dies, the Carbon-14 starts to decay, and after 50 000 years, materials would no longer have any Carbon-14 left. Fossil-derived materials, therefore, have no Carbon-14 left. By comparing the percentage of carbon molecules containing Carbon-14 to the total amount of carbon molecules, Carbon-14 testing can report a percentage of material produced from renewable feedstocks (Figure 1). According to the ASTM D6866 and ISO 13833 analytical standards, Carbon-14 testing via Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is routinely being used in various clean fuels programmes and decarbonisation schemes around the world to quantify emissions reductions and improve monitoring rules. Regulators across the world are increasingly pressuring the cement sector to decarbonise through reporting programmes, notably the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Programme (GHGRP) and the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) programmes. Another important driver internationally is the EU CBAM, which created a carbon tax on cement products sold and/or traded in the EU, regardless of
Figure 1. Carbon-14 analysis results reveal the percentage of biogenic versus fossil carbon in a material. 94
where it was produced, adding pressure on producers outside the EU. Under most emissions reduction schemes, biogenic CO2 and fossil CO2 are differentiated. Biogenic CO2 is considered ‘carbon-neutral’ and not counted towards a facility’s total emissions, as it is part of the current carbon cycle. In contrast, fossil CO2 adds new carbon to the atmosphere. Under most CCUS frameworks, biogenic CO2 capture counts as removals, making it possible for plants with CCUS to significantly reduce their emissions by 78% by 2050, according to researchers from ETH Zurich. CCUS could also help cement plants to claim negative emissions by capturing emissions and using biomass-derived fuels. Carbon-14 testing is the ideal analytical method for distinguishing the source of the emitted carbon. It is increasingly used by operators worldwide to determine the biogenic share of emissions and to identify the biomass-derived portion of the feedstock that was combusted during the process. Additionally, if a cement plant uses some biomass-based fuels and installs a carbon capture technology, it might be eligible for extra credit (or avoided penalties) for the biogenic portion of CO2 it is storing. In some cases, cement plants could claim negative emissions. This makes accurate accounting essential.
The growing need for CCUS to decarbonise cement
In the past few years, CCUS has gained prominence as a key solution for hard-to-abate industries looking to decarbonise. As the production process emits at least 50 – 60% of the total emissions, cement plants cannot be net-zero without deploying CCUS technologies and claiming carbon removal credits. Cement plants can choose to either trap emissions before they are released into the atmosphere (direct air capture), store them underground, or store the CO2 in products like concrete curing or synthetic fuels. Whilst switching to renewable fuels allows cement plants to reduce part of their emissions, only CCUS can allow them to fully decarbonise. In scenarios where biomass fuels are used, CCUS could allow plants to achieve net-negative emissions, as biogenic CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere would be permanently stored. Whilst the elimination of biogenic carbon can be classified as carbon removals, capturing and storing fossil emissions cannot. This is because the abatement of biogenic carbon effectively extracts it from the active carbon cycle. On the other hand, capturing fossil emissions World Cement November 2026
only avoids adding new carbon into the atmosphere, rather than removing existing emissions. Therefore, biogenic carbon removal has a greater climate impact. This is why regulators and certification schemes worldwide incentivise it. If cement plants want to achieve net-zero emissions or claim carbon-negative emissions, determining the share of biogenic CO2 captured using Carbon-14 testing is crucial to quantify the source of the carbon captured and stored. An accurate accounting of biogenic carbon capture has a significant effect on the financial impact of emission reporting obligations and on the economic viability of many CCUS projects. Several CCUS projects are currently underway in the cement industry, and more are expected due to increased pressure from decarbonisation schemes, the phase-out of free allowances, and the tightening of emissions caps. An increasing number of CCUS methodologies are being developed to support project development, as income from selling carbon credits or from avoiding additional emissions is key to the financial feasibility of CCUS projects. One of the best-known in the industry is Carbon Direct's 2025 criteria for high-quality CO2 removal, which recommends Carbon-14 testing to verify biogenic CCUS. Other methodologies that use direct biogenic carbon measurements include VERRA’s draft methodology for CCS. Other CCUS methodologies from Isometric, Puro.Earth, Rainbow Standard, and Gold Standard recommend or require Carbon-14 testing for carbon accounting.
Current regulatory framework applicable to cement plants worldwide
Most emissions reduction schemes cover the cement industry due to the significant impact of the industry’s total emissions. Both the US and Canada’s respective GHGRP require Carbon-14 testing for emissions from the combustion of biogenic and waste-derived feedstocks. Canada requires testing if the fuels combusted contain an unknown biomass fraction. The EU ETS requires testing for emissions that claim biogenic content, as well as for any combusted biomass seeking an emissions factor of 0. The EU CBAM covers the cement industry and requires testing to determine the biogenic portion of emissions of cement goods produced outside the EU and for the fuels used in the combustion process. CCUS regulations also require strict biogenic carbon monitoring, such as the EU Carbon Farming and Carbon Removal framework (CFCR) and Alberta’s quantification protocol for CO2 capture and permanent geological storage.
Both regulations include Carbon-14 testing requirements for awarding carbon credits.
Conclusion
As governments are looking to reduce emissions caps and deliver on decarbonisation goals, they are progressively looking for robust data to prove emission reduction claims. Carbon-14 has increasingly been used as an essential tool for the cement industry to identify how much biogenic carbon is emitted and captured. This data is valuable for monitoring carbon intensity claims and ensuring compliance with regulations that require such analysis, e.g. the US GHGRP and the EU ETS. Biogenic content determination is also valuable for the accurate accounting of carbon removals as part of the CCUS process and helps the cement industry achieve its net-zero goal.
Disclaimer
SGS Beta is not affiliated with the mentioned programmes. Check with the regulations directly for the most current updates and information.
About the author
Jessica Ballasi is a Policy Research Associate at SGS Beta. Her work aims at researching EU regulations to keep clients up to date with regulatory developments and promoting bio-based testing at the EU level.
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