Grinding specialist Gebr Pfeiffer was awarded the order for a grinding plant for slag and cement by Cemminerals NV. The Belgian cement producer is in the process of establishing a new grinding unit at the Kluizendok in the port of Ghent. The new facility proposed is a single grinding mill with production capacity of around 0.7Mta. The mill is scheduled for commissioning in early 2018.

The grinding plant will see the installation a Pfeiffer MVR 5300 C-6 vertical roller mill. The six-roller mill will be grinding five different cement qualities as well as pure slag to three different fineness degrees. The mill is guaranteed to achieve capacities of 132tph pure slag, ground to 5000cm²/g (Blaine) and of up to 200tph CEM II, ground to a fineness of 3500cm²/g (Blaine). The mill main drive is designed for an installed power of 4600kW and the SLS 4750 BC high-efficiency classifier, mounted on top of the MVR mill, enables high material fineness degrees of up to 5000cm²/g (Blaine).

Besides the MVR mill, the contract encompasses the handling equipment, two feed devices to enable moist slag and dry clinker to be fed to the mill separately, the plant filter, the plant fan, the magnetic drum separator, all ductwork including chutes, expansion joints and the stack. The scope of supply also includes a hot gas generator for the heating of the mill, as well as all electrical drives, starters, frequency converters and the electrical switchgear.

The project is an initiative of NV Holve, owned by Francis Van Eeckhout, an experienced industry investor and previously owner of VVM (Belgium) which was sold to CRH Group in 2011. The proposed plant will hold three clinker silos with a total capacity of 150,000m3 and storage hall for other raw materials, according to environmental documents prepared by the company. A 100,000m3 open storage yard is envisaged to hold slag. It will also include 12 cement silos with a capacity of 2000t each, a diameter of 10m and a filling height of 35m. The finished product will be transported to the silos by a bucket elevator. In a second phase, the project anticipates the construction of a packing plant, which is expected to have the capacity to bag some 4000bags/h, with bag weights ranging from 5-35kg.

The facility will see the supply of some 275,000t of clinker by ship as well as limestone, slag and gypsum. Some 60 per cent of the finished product will be transported by truck (either as 25t bulk or 30t bagged deliveries) with a further 30 per cent by ship (via the Kluizendok and Kanaal Gent-Terneuzen) and 10 per cent by rail. In addition, the location at the seaport of Ghent provides the company with easy access to the export markets.