Alternative fuels in cement kilns for the fight against climate change

The technical seminar was held last November ' alternative fuels in cement kilns: a contribution to the sustainability and the Kyoto Protocol ', who managed to fill the room of acts of the Department of environment and housing of the Generalitat, with the participation of almost 100 people. The meeting was conducted within the framework of the negotiations of the United Nations on climate change in Barcelona, preparatory for the International Conference in Copenhagen which will be held from 7 to 18 December and will look for a replacement to the Kyoto Protocol.

Representatives of the Catalan and Spanish cement industry respectively, stressed the commitment of the sector to the fight against climate change.

Photo: Toast Blau.

"Know evil Catalonia began so late in relation to the rest of Europe" said Maria Comellas, Director general of environmental quality of the Generalitat, and stressed the importance of this practice for the reduction of emissions of CO₂. For Comellas, it is time to start a "normalization" of the use of alternative fuels in cement sector.

For its part, Josep Lluís Sunday, director of the laboratory of Toxicology and environmental health of the Rovira i Virgili, presented the results of recent studies on the effects of the use of alternative fuels in the health of the population of cement plants. In this sense, Sunday explained that the analyses carried out on soil, vegetation and air in the environment of the factories reveal a presence of pollutants equivalent before and after the recovery of waste. Thus, according to Sunday, there are no significant health risks associated with this practice.

Also, Marta Schuhmacher, Professor of environmental technology of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, indicated that the use of waste in cement allows to reduce shipments to landfill or incinerator, routes that generate many more pollutants emissions to the recovery. In this direction works from the ecoparks, where waste fraction rest should be dumped (because it can not be recycled) receive a treatment to be useful as alternative fuels in cement kilns. Explained this immaculate Sanz, Coordinator of waste management of the company FCC, who also took part in the course of the day.

Photo: Maira Kouvara.

Finally, Aniceto Zaragoza and Antoni Crous, representatives of the Catalan and Spanish cement industry respectively, stressed the commitment of the sector to the fight against climate change, with 136 million euros of investment in environmental improvements between 1990 and 2008 only in Catalonia and the desire to extend the use of alternative fuels in factories. The representatives of the sector recalled that the recovery is a very common practice in most advanced countries of Europe and an important tour ahead in Catalonia and Spain.

In this sense, Crous remarked the bet of the sector by the dialogue and collaboration with the Administration, which also requested complicity with a view to the introduction of alternative fuels.