KAMLOOPS CEMENT
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ACTION PLAN 2015
BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY
BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY Lafarge is committed to building better cities with our products and contributing to better communities where we operate. This is why the Lafarge Kamloops cement plant strives to minimize its impact on the environment. Our efforts in 2013 and our ambitions for future years are shown here, in our Continuous Improvement Action Plan, which forms a portion of our overall Plant Progress Plan.
The Continuous Improvement Action Plan details the Kamloops plant’s initiatives and investments to prevent dust generation and propagation on site, to mitigate overall environmental emissions, to reduce resource use, and to contribute to the wellbeing of the local community.
The plant will continue to target areas for improvement:
4
1: Fugitive dust mitigation 2: Emissions mitigation 3: General environmental improvements 4: Community stewardship
FUGITIVE DUST MITIGATION
1: FUGITIVE DUST MITIGATION In 2014, Lafarge reduced fugitive dust by eliminating stockpiles and refining the way it handles and transports raw materials. Some examples:
Reduction in material stockpiles:
Change in raw material and fuel delivery mode:
Stockpiles of materials on site can increase the potential for fugitive dust. We have actively worked to reduce our carrying inventories on site in order to reduce this potential while also using silos and covered tents to store raw materials. We have also relocated some of our existing stockpiles to reduce rehandling and reprocessing steps.
We changed the delivery mode for some of our raw materials, moving from dump trucks to pneumatic trucks so that the material can be deposited directly into our storage bins in the plant. This reduces the opportunity for fugitive dust during rehandling. We are also attempting to have our alternative fuel delivery trucks unload material directly into our feed system, which ensures that the material is contained within our process.
EMISSIONS MITIGATION
2: EMISSIONS MITIGATION In 2014, Lafarge continued to work on facility upgrades to decrease the total particulate emitted by point sources and improvements in the process to target reductions in sulphur emissions. Some examples:
Installation of dust collector on gravel bed filter: We added a large dust collector to the gravel bed filter system in order to further improve its ability to capture particulate matter. Additional improvements to the system to increase the capture of particulates will be completed in 2015.
Decrease in sulphur emissions: Sulphur in cement kilns originates from the raw materials and fuels used in the manufacturing process. The manufacturing process also provides the ability to trap sulphur in the clinker, which is the intermediate product produced by the kiln prior to producing cement. In the past year, the plant has optimized the kiln feed chemistry to promote higher percentages of
trapping in the clinker while also improving the process stability in the kiln. This has resulted in a decrease of over 50% of the plant’s sulphur emissions from historical ranges. We will continue to optimize kiln feed chemistry and coach kiln operators on techniques to minimize sulphur emissions throughout the next year.
GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS
3: GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS Lafarge reduced its electrical energy intensity, fuel consumption, and raw material consumption in 2014. This was done through optimization of our cement grinding circuit, increasing biomass fuel substitution, optimizing fuel consumption, and increased alternative raw material co-processing. Some examples:
Reduction in cooling fans’ power consumption: We implemented an automation program on our cooling fans, tailoring their power consumption to the instantaneous requirements of our process. This helped to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the plant in 2014 and will continue to provide benefit into the future. Increased biomass fuel substitution: Improvements and upgrades to the plant’s alternate fuel system has given the plant the ability to increase the substitution of renewable biomass fuel into the kiln. These investments allow the
plant to continue to reduce its reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, while also reducing their overall environmental footprint by changing to less carbon intensive fuels. Alternative raw materials substituting for quarried materials: As mentioned, we are continuing to increase our use of alternative raw materials. These materials, byproducts of other industries, help reduce the need for extracting raw materials at our quarries and helps divert materials from landfills.
COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP
4: COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP In addition to managing our environmental impact, we are also focused on making a positive impact on our community. We do this by ensuring our employees and suppliers have a safe environment to work in, and by supporting causes in the community that focus on the environment, education, and sustainable development.
Health & Safety
Volunteer Program
Material donation to the BC Wildlife Park
In 2014, Lafarge Kamloops reached 1,500 days without a lost-time incident. This is the longest run since 1989 and a great achievement for our site. It represents the sum of efforts that our employees, contractors, and suppliers put into keeping co-workers safe. Our site also achieved the first level of the Lafarge Western Canada President’s Health & Safety Club for achieving, alongside other sites in our area, 200,000 hours worked without a medical incident.
Lafarge believes in building better communities, particularly in the areas of environment, education and sustainable construction. To demonstrate this we provide employees the opportunity to volunteer during work hours. In 2014 the plant increased its participation in the United Way’s Days of Caring program. In total, our employees volunteered over 200 hours in the community in 2014 and we are aiming to pass 300 hours in 2015.
In partnership with OK Ready-Mix and Trimac Transportation, Lafarge donated the cement and concrete for the foundation of the BC Wildlife Park’s new Fawcett Family Wildlife Health Center, which was opened in 2014. This new 3,000-square-foot facility allows for provision of all aspects of small-animal treatment. We have a long-standing relationship with the BC Wildlife Park and are a proud supporter.
FUTURE AMBITIONS
FUTURE AMBITIONS 1: FUGITIVE DUST MITIGATION
2: EMISSIONS MITIGATION
Reduction in material stockpiles:
Upgrade of gravel bed filter dust collector:
Our ambition for 2015 will be to sustainably eliminate of the material stockpile at the east side of our property and any uncovered alternative fuel stockpiles at our plant site.
We are currently completing an upgrade to the dust collector on our gravel bed filter system. We expect these modifications, coupled with changes to the automation program that control our clinker cooling process, to lead to further significant reduction in dust emissions from our cooler stack.
Upgrade of dust sealing along clinker reclaim system: We plan to redesign the material handling system used to send clinker to our storage hall. These upgrades should further reduce the risk of fugitive dust during this operation.
3: GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS
4: COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP
Use of waste heat for material drying:
Health & Safety:
We are working to execute a project to divert waste heat from our cooler stack air flow to our material drying circuit. This will allow us to reduce the fuel use within our system and also reduce dust emissions.
Our employees’, contractors’, suppliers’, customers’, and the general public’s health and safety will continue to be our first priority. Our site goal is to not incur any medical or lost-time incidents in 2015 and forward. In 2016, we aim to have our site recognized as part of the global Lafarge Health & Safety Excellence Club.
Increased alternative fuel substitution: We will continue to focus on alternatives to fossil fuels. We expect to execute upgrades to our biomass handling system to increase our capacity to substitute this fuel into our pyroprocess. Our objective in 2015 is to again double our biomass substitution from 2014. On a global basis, Lafarge hopes to have alternatives to traditional fossil fuel represent 50% of our fuel mix, with biomass representing almost a third of these alternatives. We will continue to make strides at our location towards this worldwide goal.
Volunteer program: Our site goal for 2015 is to have our employees contribute 300 hours in the community (with Lafarge paying their wages) on various projects. By 2020, the goal for Lafarge worldwide is to contribute 1,000,000 volunteer hours to the community annually. This will represent about two workdays per employee worldwide.