KAMLOOPS CEMENT
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ACTION PLAN 2014
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 plan has four target areas for improvement: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Fugitive dust mitigation, Emissions mitigation, General environmental improvements, and Community stewardship
1. Fugitive Dust Mitigation In 2013, Lafarge reduced fugitive dust by improving the conditions of its truck routes and refining the way it handles and transports raw materials. Some examples:
Paved haul routes Lafarge expanded the paved area near where the plant’s silos load product into cement trucks. Over the life of the plant, cement haul trucks have increased in size and consequently these trucks made wider corners and ended up driving on unpaved areas. By expanding the paved area, we have reduced the risk of the cement haul trucks generating fugitive dust on site.
New sprinkler lines, improved belt sealing Lafarge added sprinkler lines near the clinker reclaiming hopper to help prevent dust being generated by a wheel loader while travelling this area. As well, improvements to the sealing system on the transfer points on this system help to keep the material contained within our process.
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Reduction in material stockpiles 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.
Dust collector and cover on raw material hopper A large capital project for the plant this last year was the addition of a cover and dust collector to our major raw material feed hopper. This addition greatly reduces the potential for dust generation when material is being introduced into our process. We are also now able to use some raw materials that we had avoided in the past due to concerns about dust. These alternative raw materials, byproducts of other industries, help to reduce the raw material extraction needed at our quarries and also decreases the volume of materials sent to landfill.
New water truck for mobile equipment fleet Lafarge Kamloops procured a water truck that is now used to dampen roads spanning throughout the cement plant. This allows us to respond rapidly to the changing weather conditions in the valley and ensure that in dry, windy periods, we are not generating additional fugitive dust through traffic on our internal site roads.
New camera to monitor site fugitive dust Lafarge has installed a continuous monitoring camera with a full view of our site. This allows us to monitor and analyze areas of fugitive dust concern on an ongoing basis.
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2. Emissions Mitigation Lafarge invested heavily in facility upgrades to reduce the amount of dust emitted throughout our cement manufacturing process. Some examples include:
Fixed baffles in electrostatic precipitator Lafarge worked with an engineering firm to design and install additional baffling within the electrostatic precipitator at the exhaust end of our kiln process. The additional baffles better direct airflow and allow the electrostatic precipitator to capture more dust. This redesign decreased the plant’s dust emissions from the kiln stack by 50 percent between June and December 2013.
Decrease in sulphur emissions Upgraded gravel bed filter and added dust collector on gravel bed filter stack Two major initiatives have been underway on the gravel bed filter. This unit filters the airflow generated by the cooling fans after the kiln process and removes particulate matter. The first initiative was an upgrade of the gravel bed filter’s cleaning cycle control logic and refurbishment of most major components. The second initiative was to add a dust collector on the system in order to further improve its ability to capture particulate matter. The majority of this initiative was completed in 2013 and we anticipate its commissioning in May 2014.
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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, the intermediate product produced by the kiln before grinding it into cement. In the past year, the plant has optimized the kiln feed chemistry to encourage a higher percentage of trapping in the clinker while also improving the process stability in the kiln. This has resulted in a decrease in 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.
3. General Environmental Improvements Lafarge reduced its electrical energy intensity, fossil fuel consumption, and raw material consumption in 2013. This was done by the installation of components to improve the energy efficiency of our cement grinding circuit, by increasing biomass fuel substitution, and through the installation of the dust collector to our raw material feed hopper to allow for increased alternative raw material co-processing. Some examples:
Upgrade of new liners in cement grinding circuit Lafarge upgraded the liners in a cement grinding circuit in order to reduce power consumption of this process. This helped to reduce the electrical energy consumption of the plant in 2013 and will continue to provide benefit into the future.
Reduction in cooling water use We optimized our material cooling circuit, reducing both water and power use from 2012 to 2013.
Increased biomass fuel substitution Lafarge upgraded the plant’s capacity to substitute renewable biomass fuel into our pyroprocess through an improved air transmission line into the main burner pipe and increased feed bin capacity. These investments allow the plant to continue to reduce its reliance on fossil 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 to reduce the raw material extraction needed at our quarries and our use of them helps to divert them from landfill.
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4. Community Stewardship Health & Safety Health & Safety is a key focus for Lafarge. In 2013, Lafarge Kamloops reached 1,000 days without a lost-time incident. This is a great achievement for our site and represents the sum of the efforts that our employees, contractors, and suppliers put into keeping their co-workers safe.
Volunteer Program 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 2013 we became active with the United Way’s Day of Caring by putting our hands to work at Kamloops Immigrant Services. In addition, employees volunteered with a number of career education events through Thompson Rivers University.
Material donation to the BC Wildlife Park In partnership with OK Ready-Mix and Trimac Transportation, Lafarge donated the cement and concrete used for the foundation of the BC Wildlife Park’s new Fawcett Family Wildlife Health Center. This new 3,000-square-foot facility will allow 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 1. Fugitive Dust Mitigation
Upgrade of dust sealing along clinker reclaim system We plan to improve the material handling system used to bring clinker from our storage hall into our cement grinding process. These upgrades should further reduce the risk of fugitive dust during this operation.
Reduction in material stockpiles Our ambition for 2014 will be the elimination of the material stockpile at the east side of our property, the reduction of the fossil fuel stockpiles north of our plant site, and the elimination of the outdoor alternative alumina material stockpiles at our plant site.
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2. Emissions Mitigation
Completion of gravel bed filter dust collector We look forward to the completion and integration of the dust collector on our gravel bed filter system. This project represents an investment of almost $500,000 in order to reduce dust emissions from our cooling process. This project will also include the addition of a continuous flow monitor on the cooler vent stack.
3. General Environmental Improvements
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 2014 is to double our biomass substitution from 2013. 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.
Use of waste heat for material drying We will be examining and potentially looking to execute two projects to divert waste heat from our cooler stack air flows into our material drying circuits. This would allow us to reduce the fuel use within our system.
4. Community Stewardship
Health & Safety 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 any medical or lost-time incidents in 2014 and forward. In 2016, we aim to have our site recognized as part of the global Lafarge Health & Safety Excellence Club.
Volunteer Program Our site goal for 2014 is to have all employees contribute a full workday in the community (with Lafarge paying their wages for the day) 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.
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KAMLOOPS CEMENT
9750 Shuswap Road Kamloops, British Columbia V2M 1T4 Tel. (250) 573-3211 Fax. (250) 573-4010
www.lafarge-na.com