Southern European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Cyprus have relatively low alternative fuel substitution rates compared to most of the rest of Europe and a high dependence on imported fuels. Italy and Portugal have underdeveloped waste management logistics chains. While efforts are being made in Portugal to resolve this issue, Italy’s low-energy economy and cement industry means that few improvements have been made in recent years.

Portugal

Cement Production

The cement industry in Portugal is made up of six cement factories. Three are owned by the Cement Industry (Cimpor) and three are owned by SECIL. The factories have a combined production capacity of 11.6Mt / year, including 210,000t / year of white cement from SECIL’s Cibra-Pataias plant in Leiria, Maceira.

Portuguese cement production levels peaked in 2010 at 7.2Mt, according to the USGS. In the following years, the country’s adverse economic environment had a depressing effect on its construction and cement sectors and demand stagnated. SECIL reported that demand for cement fell 20% to 2.8Mt / year in 2013, in addition to the 28.6% drop year-on-year in 2012. Cimpor said that demand for cement in Portugal was around 3Mt in 2014.

Both Portuguese producers have turned to export markets to revive their respective businesses, although SECIL has considered overcapacity in Spain as a challenge to this tactic. Secil’s Portuguese cement sales fell 14.4% year-on-year to € 260,000 in 2013. Cement sales volumes fell 21% year-on-year to 1.08Mt. However, its exports grew 16%, to 1.06Mt.

Cimpor presented similar results for 2014. The respective domestic cement sales volumes fell 12% year-on-year to 1.3Mt in 2014, while Portugal’s exports increased 20% year-on-year to 3Mt. Cimpor reported that, although exports have lower prices than domestic sales, the growth of the export market was good for the long term.

Alternative Fuels Framework

In Portugal, the coprocessing of waste is regulated, among other diplomas, by Decree-Law no. 85/2005. The diploma consists of 49 articles and five annexes and aims to prevent or reduce the negative effects of waste incineration on the environment. It defines emission limit values for air and waste discharges and regulates waste transport, storage and recycling, as well as control and monitoring procedures.

The two cement producers in Portugal often collaborate to improve waste management systems to benefit from the use of alternative fuels. In December 2014, N + P International signed a five-year contract for the supply of recovered solid fuels (SRF) to the cement plants of Secil and Cimpor.

The contract was signed by Environmental Management and Energy Recovery (AVE), a company in which SECIL, Cimpor and Waste Management and Recovery Services (SGVR) participated. Created in 2003, AVE monitors the waste circuit for coprocessing throughout all its phases, from the identification of waste that could be used as an alternative fuel or secondary raw material in the manufacture of clinker to the study of its feasibility and control Of Quality. Currently, the amount of waste managed by AVE per year is around 300,000t.

“In the past few years we have invested millions to develop the UK market. Now N + P has several port facilities at strategic locations with the possibility of using a large number of marine containers,” said Karel Jennisen, president of N + P . N + P has committed to supply> 700,000t of SRF to Portugal over the next five years. Most SRFs are already supplied by companies in the UK recycling market. A small part of the volume will be obtained in Italy and France.

This will not be N + P’s first venture in Portugal. On May 8, 2014, he sent his first batch of 2500t of SRF from the United Kingdom to Lisbon. The material came from the N + P plant in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.

Alternative fuels used by cement producers

Cement Industry (Cimpor)

Cement Industry (Cimpor) has three cement factories and 7.15Mt / year of cement production capacity in Portugal.

In its 2011 Sustainability Report, Cimpor said its global alternative fuel substitution rate was 5.1%, up from 4.7% in 2010, although its biomass substitution rate fell by 1.4 % to 1.2%. Gross CO2 emissions from cement production increased from 677.72 kg / t to 686.86 kg / t in 2010. Although Portuguese factories account for only 3% of global alternative fuel consumption, Cimpor estimates that the rate of thermal substitution in Portugal was around 10%. Tires and rubber represent the largest type of alternative fuel used by Cimpor worldwide, around 59.5% (Table 1).

The Loulé da Cimpor plant in Faro has been producing alternative fuels since 2009. It processes biomass and fuel derived from waste (CDR) as waste tires for use in the precalciner. There are two storage compartments equipped to receive the waste and a crane with an automated grapple to transfer the waste from the bays to the hopper that feeds the mixer belt. The belt mixes the material, depending on the fuel requirements of the precalciner, with an incubation capacity of 0.5 – 5t / h.

An inclined belt conveyor, completely covered with a final metal belt, feeds the precalciner through a triple flap port to prevent the entry of false air into the precalciner. The Loulé factory also uses ash as an alternative raw material. Cimpor set up an alternative fuel installation at its Alhandra plant in 2014.

Secil – Companhia Geral de Cal e Cimento

Secil owns three cement plants and 4.43Mt / year of cement production capacity, including 21,000t / year of white cement capacity, in Portugal.

In 2013, Secil’s global alternative fuel replacement rate was 21.1% (Table 2), when it burned the same amount (169,000t) of alternative fuels as in 2012. Worldwide, Secil reduced its consumption of solid and gaseous fossil fuels in 2013 compared to the previous year. Secil also increased its biomass substitution rate to 10% and reduced its gross CO2 emissions.

In Portugal, Secil’s alternative fuel substitution rate went from 41% in 2012 to 44% in 2013. Although it switched back to using 55% of alternative fuel in 2013, this was not achieved “due to the availability and characteristics of available alternative fuels in the market”. In 2005-20I3, the coprocessing of 1Mt waste avoided 1 million tons of CO2 emissions and allowed a reduction in imports of coke 340,000t allowing a saving of Euro26m.

The Maceira plant in Leiria was the first SECIL plant to use tire chips as an alternative fuel. Secil generates 10-13% of its thermal energy from this type of fuel. The Outão plant in Setúbal burns coal, diesel, gas, petroleum coke and alternative fuels. In 2013, SECIL completed its gas diversion systems in the clinker lines in Outão and Maceira, which, according to the company, increased its use of alternative fuels. SECIL also increased the use of industrial waste as an alternative fuel and expanded its CDR storage capacity.

Perspective

The IMF predicted that Portugal’s GDP is expected to grow 1.6% in 2015 and 1.5% in 2016, after a 0.9% growth in 2014. Although the country’s long-term prospects are positive, it is expected that construction and cement sectors need some time to fully recover. As such, the installed capacity and the production capacity in Portugal will continue to exceed domestic demand for some time. Despite low domestic demand, Cimpor and Secil both reported rapid growth during 2013 in the export markets, mainly to Africa and South America. This will help boost demand and drive higher capacity utilization rates. In addition, Cimpor stated that it expects the national cement industry to start recovering in 2015.

Regarding alternative fuels, Cimpor intends to increase its substitution rate up to 30% by 2016 and its biomass substitution rate to 5% in the same period. Secil’s objectives are less specific, but it plans to increase its rate of substitution for alternative fuels, in particular the use of biomass residues. As mentioned by SECIL, the waste management supply chain in Portugal is unable to provide an adequate amount of SRF so that cement producers can continue to increase their alternative fuel replacement rates. N + P has recently started to address the deficit in its UK operations, but the focus is likely to remain for new entrants to the market.