Shri S K Wali, Wholetime Director, Lakshmi Cement and Chairman, CMA Technical Committee, while welcoming the Members and Invitees, observed that time is ripe now for an introspection into the role of the committee to devise new strategies and more effectively fulfill the objectives of the Managing Committee of CMA to serve the broad interests of the Association and its esteemed Members..

With the rapidly changing scenario of the industry, he felt that time has now come that the younger generation of Executives with fresh ideas come up to take over the reins of the committee and face new and emerging challenges. Nevertheless, he also stressed upon the importance of veterans to provide help and mature guidance from the sidelines from their pool of experiences to a younger team. Such a switch over should be possible within six months, the Chairman observed.

The Chairman also cautioned that issues or items languishing for long time with some statutory or regulatory bodies should not create any misconception among new Members about the usefulness of the Technical Committee. Such are mostly highly debatable issues, or issues where opinions are not unanimous among Member Companies, and the Technical Committee may not always be able to make headway for various reasons beyond its control.

Shri N A Viswanathan, Secretary General, CMA, in his opening remarks appreciated the impressive presence of the Technical Committee Members for enabling wholesome discussion on crucial issues. He also noted that the interests shown and intense participation by younger generation Executives in the deliberations are commendable.

The Meet provided readily available data on the cement industries of the partner countries, The data included some details of energy efficiency measures adopted or implemented by Cement industries in Canada, China, Japan and USA, which formed a part of GHG emission reduction targets stated by the partner countries. Countries reported the initiatives taken through diverse means like use of alternative fuels, raw materials as clinker substitutes, and energy- efficient equipment design. Such inputs had been subsequently compiled systematically by Shri D Sivagurunathan, a Member of the CMA Technical Committee and Delegate from M/s India Cements. The highlights are quoted below.

Chinese cement industry(2007):

More than 5000 plants produced 1360 million tones of cement with addition of 88 new production lines. Co-generation systems, 96 sets of 740 MW capacity were built and put in operation that generated nearly 4.94 bKWH of electricity and saved 1.83 mln t of coal. Energy efficiency improvement by replacing Wet process kilns and shaft kilns with NSP kilns, having a share of 55% in the total production now. Co-generation will be encouraged in all NSP plants. Substitution with waste as raw materials- nearly 300 mt of slag, fly ash and other industrial wastes were used. China is also to set new energy saving standard and strengthen environmental supervision in the future.

US cement industry(2006):

115 cement plants(32 companies with the largest producing approximately 13% of the total cement production, and top five companies collectively producing approximately 51%) produced 99 mt of cement. From 1972 to 2006, the US cement industry has reduced energy consumption by 37.5% corresponding to a fuel CO 2 reduction by nearly the same amount. Newly produced cement guidelines will allow for greater use of unburned ground limestone as a component in finished cement, to ultimately reduce calcination CO 2 by more than 2.5 mtpa. Today, the cement industry fuel CO 2 accounts for less than 3% of US industrial CO 2 emissions, well below other sources(petroleum industry- 21.8%, chemical industry- 22.2%, iron & steel mills- 9%). US have adopted a three-part strategy to reduce CO 2 emissions by 10% by 2020 from the 1990 baseline levels through plant energy efficiency improvements, upgrading product formulation, R & D for new applications for cement and concrete that improve energy efficiency and durability. They have also prioritized materials as part of their initiative for alternate fuel use.

Canada cement industry(2006):

Seven companies with 16 plants produced 14.3 mt of cement, with GHG emissions by cement plants- 1.4% of total emissions of Canada. Measures taken and progress on clean development are energy efficiency improvements (improved by 11% between 1990 and 2006; CAC with Natural Resources Canada is undertaking comprehensive Benchmarking study to guide further improvement), use of alternate and renewable energies, improved addition of supplementary cementing material (since 2003, the clinker factor has improved from 86.9% to 83.9%). Canada is commited to reduce total GHG emission by 20% by 2020 and by 60-70% by 2050 from the 2006 baseline level, by implementing series of ambitious regulatory and technology initiatives.

Japan cement industry- Best practices for energy conservation :

In discussion on this long pending issue, namely of difficulties in getting clearances from State PCBs, the members reported that MP and Karnataka PCBs are favourably disposed in recycling hazardous wastes in cement kilns. It was reported that lobby of incinerators enjoying clout with CII and FICCI are working against the interest of cement kilns. It was therefore felt that meetings might be held between representatives from regional cement plants and CMA with State PCBs on this issue for facilitating clearances for co-processing hazardous wastes. A sub-committee was constituted comprising Dr K C Narang, Dr K V Reddy and Shri Sanjay Jain for preparation of the draft Memorandum for MoEF and organising a meeting with MoEF representatives . In view of the fact that most State PCBs usually insist on specific WDF based trials before giving permissions, it was advised that any plant willing to use any particular WDF, as partial replacement of coal, should write to CMA and CMA should forward its recommendations to MoEF or CPCB, based on test results of trials on such wastes already conducted in any other cement plant in India under the supervision of the State PCB concerned and the CPCB . The Committee advised that for easier permission from State PCBs, any successful trial on WDF by any cement plant should be reported to CMA, which will strengthen the case for getting universal permission for use of such wastes by cement plants in other states .

In view of pervading stigma of Pollution Control authorities against recycling or coprocessing any hazardous wastes, some salient data has been collected by Shri D Sivagurunathan, Member- Energy Task Force and President (Mfg.), India Cements. The data includes a host of parameters like coal substitution factor, energy content, carbon emission factor vis-à-vis differential CO 2 balance with replaced coal etc.-- for agricultural biomass, non-agricultural biomass, industrial wastes for their use as alternate fuel. These data also include key environmental concerns and required control measures for their use and also some important criteria for burning hazardous wastes. These data had been published as the Lead Article in the CMA Quarterly Journal, “Cement, Energy and Environment”, April – June 2008 issue.

The way forward

The matter was further persued by CMA with the MoEF and the latter has shown willingness to help cement companies/plants facing difficulties in Co-processing Hazardous Combustibles due to Regulatory Provisions or Objections from the State Level Pollution and Environmental Control Authorities( vide our Circular No 280(CPCB)/462/2008 dated 14 th August 2008 ). The problems faced by many of our Member companies in this regard had been discussed in the Meeting convened by the Secretary, MoEF on 11 th August, 2008 in the context of Review of the Status of Programmes and Activities of different Task Forces under the Asia-Pacific Partnership(APP 7).

The Additional Secretary, MoEF and Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board(CPCB), Shri J. M. Mauskar advised that if CMA provides Documents/Letters/Notes in support of difficulties or objections faced by cement plants in use of any hazardous wastes or combustibles in cement manufacturing, then CPCB would take up the case with the concerned department of the State for redressal. We once again urge you to send your feedback to us before 1 st September 2008 so that we can take up your case with CPCB for redressal.

The Committee(S/Shri M S Gupta, Executive President-Works, Century Cement & M K Chaudhary, Sr VP-Operations, Lafarge India) submitted its report recommending that Coal Consumption Norms for Cement Manufacture should be calculated on the basis of Cement capacity of the plant for the following reasons:

• The plant capacity is always mentioned in terms of cement.
• Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandum is submitted to the Ministry of Industry, wherein the plant capacity is mentioned in terms of cement capacity only.
• Applications for Environmental Clearance to Central Pollution Control Board and State Govt. Pollution Control Board are submitted mentioning the cement capacity only.
• Calculation for Plant Load Factor is also done in terms of cement capacity.

In general, Plant Capacity is better known and normally discussed in terms of Cement Capacity only and not in terms of Clinker Capacity.

At its 31 st meeting held jointly with the Technical Committee on 19 th June, 2008, CMA Environmental Task Force reviewed the progress in persuing various ongoing issues with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), and indicated follow-up actions in respect of each as under.

SO 2 and NO x Emission norms and Load Based Standards and Load Based Emission Norms

In CMA Technical Newsletter , Vol. 7, No. 3, Jul – Sept 07, p3, we reported about CPCB to fix the norms for SO 2 and NO x Emissions based NCB's recommendations on permissible limits for the same as 500 mg/Nm 3 and 1000 mg/Nm 3 respectively. Subsequently, it was learnt from the plant operational data that the NO x Emissions are higher than 1000 mg/Nm 3 . In view of this, the Committee advised that CMA should request CPCB to upwardly revise the limits for NO x Emissions. The representation to CPCB would need substantiation of our stand with more plant-level data from ACC, Grasim and Shree Cements with the assistance of S/Shri K N Rao, L Rajasekar and Dr R K Bhargava.

In this regard, it may be noted that CPCB has recently assigned a study project to NCB on “Comprehensive Industry Document Series (COINDS) on Cement Plants” incorporating collection of information from cement plants by NCCBM on particulate emissions and particularly SO 2 and NO x Emissions.

The Committee decided that the industry should avail of this new development and collaborate with NCB for data collection on SO 2 and NO x Emissions from cement plants, such that realistic norms are suggested by NCB to CPCB.

Awareness on CPCB Guidelines on fugitive emissions control

Further to our reporting in CMA Technical Newsletter , Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan – Mar 08 & Vol. 7, No. 4, Oct – Dec 07, p4, and Vol. 7, No. 3, Jul – Sept 07, p3, the details of Workshops on the subject planned/ organized/ conducted by CMA in conjunction with the respective Zone-wise Leaders/ Cement companies are presented in the Table below.

The Meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi during 26--27 September, 2007 had been postponed to 11-12 December. CMA Representatives for CED 2 did not attend the Meeting. The Minutes drawn by BIS dated 24 th April covers quite a few important items for cement manufacturing, which had been posed by the Technical Committee as issues for reconsideration by BIS. Item-wise conclusions in the Minutes are briefed below:

Representation of CMA in (a) BIS CED 2 Special Group for Considering the Issue of Additional 43 and 53 Grades in PSC and PPC, CED 2 SG and (b) in the Panel for Revision of Indian Standards on Cement, CED 2:1/P1

CMA has been included as Member in the referred Special Group of CED 2 and Panel for CED 2:1. BIS has requested nomination from CMA for this Special Group and the Panel. CMA replied that the current representation in CED 2 and CED 2:! are under review by the CMA Subcommittee concerned, i.e., the Technical Committee Members discussed and made following Nomination Nominations.

COMPILED BY: Dr S P Ghosh, Advisor(Technical), CMA ; Assisted by Er. K K Roy Chowdhury, CMA

(b) Panel for Revision of Indian Standards on Cement, CED 2:1/P1