Cement News tagged under: Environmental

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UK Agency approves chipped tyres

17 August 2005, Published under Cement News

The United Kingdom’s Environment Agency has announced that it is allowing Cemex UK Cement Ltd to begin trials using chipped tires as a partial substitute fuel at its Rugby cement works. After extensive consultation and detailed consideration the agency issued Cemex a permit under the Pollution, Prevention and Control Regulations in September 2003. The permit allowed the use of up to 10t an hour of chipped tires as a partial substitute fuel subject to a trial meeting stringent success criteria...

Aussi cement producer - water limit breach?

15 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Western Australia’s largest cement producer could escape with just a A$10,000 fine if it is prosecuted for exceeding its water limit by 2.8 billion litres. The Department of Environment has confirmed Cockburn Cement breached the conditions of its license by drawing excess water from the Yaragadee Aquifer in the state’s south-west over the past two years. The company was investigated in 2003 for a similar offence but escaped without penalty. Department spokesman Declan Morgan says a lot ha...

Expansion at Cemex plant

15 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Harlon Guenther’s front yard is reportedly covered with a fine white dust, a daily consequence of living less than 200 yards from the Cemex New Braunfels, USA cement plant. Guenther was dismayed to learn several weeks ago the company planned to expand its operations, but he felt powerless to protest. about the plant’s recent permit request for a new raw mill and a second kiln. Cemex filed its request with TCEQ earlier this summer after canceling an invitation-only, public relations event ...

Green group accuses Schweitzer of betraying the environment

15 August 2005, Published under Cement News

An environmental group battling Holcim Inc. over the company’s plan to burn tires says that Gov. Brian Schweitzer is turning his back on protecting the environment. To make its point, the Montana Environmental Information Center of Helena noted the state’s recent decision allowing Holcim to continue using waste slag at its Trident cement plant while it waits for an environmental study to be completed. The group also criticized Schweitzer, a Democrat, for an energy symposium he is hosting ...

To cut pollution, Dutch pay a dump in Brazil

15 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Brazilian workers and the Dutch government have been brought together in an unusual partnership by the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty under which most industrialized countries, other than the US, have pledged to reduce their global-warming emissions by 2012. The workers are building a modern landfill, a rarity in the developing world. The landfill includes a system to capture methane from the city’s decomposing rubbish before it wafts up into the atmosphere. Methane is a particu...

TXI to agree pollution limits

12 August 2005, Published under Cement News

The second US Midlothian cement plant in a week has agreed to limit its air pollution while maintaining increased cement production.  Texas Industries Inc., two environmental groups and 22 Midlothian residents tentatively reached an agreement under which the city’s largest cement maker will rescind its request to the state to turn off a pollution-control device for six months each year. The device controls hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and sulphur.  The TXI agreement comes a week after B...

Tyres as fuel raises concern

11 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Local residents not sure what to think about Lafarge North America’s bid to burn 4.8 million scrap tyres a year as fuel in its nearby Alpena cement plant, according to the local environmental group Friends of Hudson, which claims it has not yet taken a stance on Lafarge’s proposal - but is clearly alarmed by it.  The state Department of Environmental Conservation has offered Lafarge’s plan up to public scrutiny. A public hearing will be held Aug. 25 and the public can comment on it until...

Lafarge launches ’clean development’ project

08 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Lafarge has been authorized by the French government to launch the first French project to apply the ’clean development’ mechanism contained in the Kyoto protocol on climate change.  The group is to build a wind farm at one of its cement works in Morocco. The ’clean development’ mechanism allows companies in industrialized countries to gain CO2 credits from investments carried out abroad. It is based on the principle that any reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is beneficial to the climate,...

Cement firm faces increasing legal costs

08 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Five years ago, St Lawrence Cement Co., carved out a desolate patch of the Broadway Marine Terminal and began building a $50 million, highly automated slag cement processing plant in South Jersey Port Corp. The terminal, which employs only 15 people, brings in more tonnage than any other business in the port. Fueled by a building boom, it is expected to pay the Port Corp. close to US$3m this year in fees and rent and another US$1.3m a year toward the cost of building the company a new US$29m...

2nd kiln agrees to reduce emissions

05 August 2005, Published under Cement News

Holcim has agreed to slash emissions of ozone-forming pollutants at its Midlothian cement kiln, a move that environmentalists and company officials say could dramatically improve local air quality.    The decision by Holcim settles an administrative challenge by Blue Skies Alliance and Downwinders at Risk. The two clean-air groups challenged a state permit that would allow the kiln to increase emissions.    Instead, Holcim has agreed to a wide-ranging settlement that requires the kiln to op...