Dieter Schletterer, Siemens vice president of Cement-Minerals, gave up his time to the press to describe some of the latest technology that Siemens offers to clients in the cement industry. His comments reflect on how the cement sector’s challenges help to shape the technologies of the future and how local partnerships are having a big role to play in introducing global solutions to regional cement markets.
Siemens’ Drive Technology division makes it clear that the global cement industry faces two distinct challenges in the years ahead. The first is energy reduction and the second is lowering CO2 emissions. For every 1t of cement produced, approximately 700kg of CO2 is emitted. One-third of this is generated by energy consumption in the cement-making process. Electricity usage is one of the largest input costs and compounding the issue, power prices are expected to rise by some 70 per cent over the next 20 years.
