LafargeHolcim Martres-Tolosane plant installs whole-tyre injection system

LafargeHolcim has installed a whole-tyre injection system at its plant at Martres-Tolosane, near Toulouse, France.

The equipment will enable the cement manufacturer to use around 4000 tyres per day as alternative fuel to fire its kiln, representing 15 per cent of the thermal input. The tyres will reduce the share of petcoke in the plant’s fuel mix from 75 to 60 per cent. The works already uses plastic waste, decommissioned seeds, wood residues and dried sewage sludge as alternative fuel, but the addition will increase the share of such fuels to 40 per cent, according to Christophe Bignolas, plant director.

The injection system was supplied by Walter ATS, a specialist in alternative fuel dosing and conveying. LafargeHolcim already uses the technology at its North American plants. Whole tyres are transported by a belt conveyor to the kiln where they are introduced through a sluice valve place.

The ability to use whole tyres rather than shredded ones saves time in terms of transportations as well as lowering CO₂ emissions.