Total experience of more than 3 decades with cement industries and 25 years with Ambuja cement Ltd. Finally worked as president and unit head of Rajasthan unit, handled many projects of establishing cement plants and grinding units, bulk cement handling ports and sea transport system. Successfully handled cement plant project of 2.0 MTPA Capacity with Emami cement Ltd as Executive President project for 3 years. Presently working with Adani Cementation Limited as head technical at their corporate office, Ahmedabad.
For Cement Industries, whether building a new plant, upgrading capacity or optimizing existing operations, emissions compliance is high on the agenda of cement producers. In the bigger picture of cement plant operations, emissions compliance is about minimizing environmental footprint. With regulations associated with emissions limits continuing to tighten, producers need to be vigilant about reducing emissions of gases and particulate matter. The major pollutant to air from cement production are Methane, Fume, Dust, Nitrogen oxide, Sulphur oxide, Carbon oxide, and Carbon dioxide, which are responsible for global warming potential, which can harm the environment and are also harmful to human and plant health, through respiration.
Total experience of more than 3 decades with cement industries and 25 years with Ambuja cement Ltd. Finally worked as president and unit head of Rajasthan unit, handled many projects of establishing cement plants and grinding units, bulk cement handling ports and sea transport system. Successfully handled cement plant project of 2.0 MTPA Capacity with Emami cement Ltd as Executive President project for 3 years. Presently working with Adani Cementation Limited as head technical at their corporate office, Ahmedabad.
Answer: : When I joined Ambuja cement, we were having capacity of 0.7 MTPA with one kiln system at Kadinar– Gujrat. There itself, we put two more kiln systems. Finally, 2.7 MTPA was upgraded to 5.5 MTPA. Major challenge for this plant was distance from major market -consumption centres to manufacturing unit. We established bulk cement loading port at Muldwarka (9 Km from plant), bulk cement handling sea going vassals (ship) 10 Nos and a bulk cement receiving port, each at Surat, Mumbai, Cochin, Mangalore and Srilanka. By this we Expanding our cement manufacturing capacity in various states like Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal- Finally we become 22 MTPA capacity market leader company in India.
Answer: : I slightly disagree with general impression that cement industry is prone to generate dust pollution.
In cement manufacturing process right from mining, Raw material grinding, pyro process, clinker grinding and cement packing and distribution in market, If equipment’s are selected properly with proper dust filtering system, this plant can be maintain neat and clean without any environment pollution. At Ambujanagar, we adopted surface miners for lime stone mining, Glass Bag House ( in place of ESP), Fan venting of pyro and raw mill gases, best design ESP for cooler vent gases and properly designed bag filters for all dust generating points. We were maintaining rose garden nearby Kiln system and either green patch on concrete flooring in and around cement plant.
I was heading environment maintaining cell for entire group and there was no budget restriction for upgrading any equipment or dust filtering system.
Answer: : Major challenge was to transport 15000 tons of bulk cement from plant to various ports as mentioned in Ans 1.
Cement loading at fast rate in bulk rad carriers and unloading from their carriers were the big challenge. Apart from dust generation, rate of loading and unloading was also very important as the cost of transportation was totally depending on this. With lots of trials and errors we developed best & unique system for fastest loading and unloading cement, the first in entire cement plants of country. I visited many cement plants of Europe , America, Japan for east and gulf but no where they could achieve better cement unloading rates than ours ( What we have developed on our own ).
Similarly, we developed truck mounted bulk cement carriers to suit our requirement, which were found turning point for entire cement industry.
Answer: : As a cement producer, we have to change the perception of general public that cement can not to be produce without damaging environment of mother earth. While selecting equipment for various cement manufacturing process, just by spending little higher capital cost (@ ~ 10%) for proper sizing and better design, we can create world’s best plants in India. Give lots of emphasis on automation and system monitoring at all stage of manufacturing, keep best maintenance system with good motivated team, then believe me, cement manufacturing is highly profitable business.