Conveying system helps diversify company’s solid fuel options
A cement producer installs a custom-designed alternative fuel handling system to lower production costs.
Ciment Quebec Inc., St. Basile, Quebec, produces and distributes a full line of masonry and Portland cements in bulk and bags for use in industrial, commercial, and residential construction projects around the world. The company uses a large coal-fired rotary kiln to produce more than 4 million metric tons of product annually. Several years ago, the company’s production costs had risen to an unacceptable level because of ever-increasing fossil fuel prices. To keep production costs as low as possible, the company decided to burn less-expensive alternative fuels with the coal. As part of the project, the company needed to find a reliable and accurate way to introduce the alternative fuels into the kiln’s preheater.