Cemex has entered into a global agreement with automation specialist Petuum Industrial to supply AI (artifical intellegence) Autopilot with autosteer in all cement plants worldwide for autonomous cement plant operations.

The Petuum Industrial AI Autopilot product for cement plant operations are being deployed at select Cemex USA and Mexico plants and will continue to be rolled out in 2019.

The AI technology will deliver real-time precise forecasts for key process variables, prescriptions for critical control variables and supervised autosteer aligned with business objectives for all cement plant operations including clinker cooler, preheater, rotary kiln, pyroprocess, ball mill and vertical mill processes to achieve lowered energy consumption, optimised fuel mix and increased throughput while maintaining stable operation and high product quality, says Petuum Industrial.

Additionally, the emissions Autopilot enables alignment of global operational excellence initiatives with local site priorities.

"Petuum Industrial AI Autopilot helped us achieve something we didn't think was possible at this time," says Rodrigo Quintero, Operations Digital Technologies Manager in Cemex. "We expect our yield improvements and energy savings to be up to seven per cent, from the connected AI-based autopilots, which is game changing for our industry.

"Additionally, this is a giant step in digital transformation towards safe, highly standardised operations, that will help us strengthen our high-quality products portfolio while also ensuring we meet our operational and sustainability goals, and minimise costs."

The Autopilot products deployed at Cemex for the rotary kiln and clinker cooler systems are integrated with plant control systems and OSIsoft PI data infrastructure for scalable, standardised and rapid deployments across multiple lines and plants globally.

Cemex and Petuum will continue close collaboration to deploy additional Autopilot use-cases such as emissions reduction, fuel-mix (alternative fuel) optimisation, kiln refractory, preventive maintenance, etc. for global cement plants and expand Petuum Industrial AI to other operations worldwide.