Picton plant applies for alternative low-carbon fuel permit

Lehigh Cement plant in Picton is examining alternative low-carbon fuels as part of its operations at the facility on County Road 49, just north of Picton, Ontario, Canada. Lehigh (HeidelbergCement Group) intends to replace and supplement the use of fossil fuels required to make Portland cement at the plant.

Lehigh has initiated the technical process which also involves an amendment to the Environmental Protection Act, in a bid to permanently use alternative low-carbon fuels (ALCFs) at the facility. The intention is to use up to 200tpd of alternative fuels at the Picton plant to reduce the amount of coal and petcoke used at the facility. The Picton plant has already achieved a near 20 per cent reduction in CO₂ per tonne of cement.

In Ontario, alternative fuels are used by five other cement plants, one of which uses up to 400tpd. Lehigh proposes to substitute petcoke and coal with refuse-derived fuel (RDF). 

“We are looking to utilise some of the plastics, organic material, paper, construction and demolition materials, that would normally go to landfill,” explained Ray Nobles, alternative fuels manager from the US corporate office. “We want to actually utilise it as a fuel to replace some of our fossil fuel usage at the Picton cement plant.”

The use of ALCFs will result in the reduction of use of coal and petcoke which arrive by boat at the facility, according to Nick Papanicolaou, environmental manager with Lehigh Cement in Picton. “There will be an increase in the truck deliveries accordingly to supply ALCFs,” said Papanicolaou.

The use of ALCFs at the Picton plant will require the building of a new covered storage building and conveyancing equipment to be located next to the existing two storage domes on the site, in close proximity to the plant.

Withthis project it is expected Picton’s Cement plant will reduce its CO₂ by 46,228tpa.