Heidelberg Materials partners UNTHA in Zuari Cement project

Heidelberg Materials has revealed a new single-step alternative fuel production line in India, with the help of UNTHA shredding technology. The system has been installed at the Yerraguntla cement plant in Andhra Pradesh, owned and operated by Zuari Cement (Heidelberg Materials Group). This well-known Indian firm has a cement manufacturing capacity of 7.1Mta.

Handling both pre-sorted and unsorted municipal solid waste (MSW) collected from throughout the region, it can process 20t of 100-500kg/m³ density material per hour, to produce a renewable fossil fuel substitute, used to fuel the cement plant. 

An UNTHA XR3000C shredder designed for continuous operation in 50°C temperatures, lies at the heart of the facility. With in-feed and discharge conveyors including a magnetic belt for metal separation, the plant can achieve a high-quality, homogenous 80mm output in a single pass. The segregated metal content is separated and the residual on-specification fraction is used by Zuari Cement as refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

Commenting on this co-processing project, Heidelberg Materials’ AF expert, Robert Sweigart, said: “When we began the search for a shredder for this facility, we had stringent requirements. We sought heavy duty technology that can withstand the pressures of shredding unsorted waste, and achieve refined fuel, in impressive quantities, in only one step. Our global experience was helpful in drawing up a shortlist, then we found the UNTHA XR3000C to have a number of technical advantages over competitors. The machine operates at a lower speed without compromising on capacity, for example, which results in lower wear. This means more uptime and lower whole life running costs.”

Manish Shah, head of the India Technical Center, added: “This shredder is easy to install, operate and maintain, meets our expectations in terms of performance and allows us to vastly improve our flexibility to co-process various kinds of alternative fuels available in the market. The goal is for our co-processing facility to produce 8000-10,000t of RDF per year.”

Zuari Cement has already proven the machine’s flexibility, having shredded MSW, as well as industrial plastics, textiles, tyres, rubber, paper and biomass materials requiring further refinement for optimal co-processing.