By : Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, May 20, 2022
Cemex will work with Coolbrook to test its patented technology that uses electricity instead of fossil fuels in the heating process of cement production, as those used to heat the kilns account for approximately 45 percent of the carbon emissions in cement production. cement.
He explained that they reached a memorandum of understanding to combine their experience to develop optimal solutions for electrical heating processes that can be applied in the manufacture of cement.
The great advance of the Roto Dynamic Heater (RDH) technology is that it allows, using only electricity, to heat the oven to a high enough temperature, around 1,700 degrees Celsius, necessary to produce cement with the most advanced materials.
He indicated that when it works with electricity from renewable sources, the technology eliminates CO 2 emissions from the fuels used in the heating process and is an important advance in the eventual decarbonization of the industry.
“The electrification of the heating and calcination process of cement production is an important step towards the decarbonization of our cement operations,” said Roberto Pongutá, vice president of Global Operations, Technology and Energy at Cemex.
“To the extent that we consume electricity from renewable sources, we can eliminate carbon emissions related to heating cement kilns,” he added.
Ilpo Kuokkanen, CEO of Coolbrook, commented that “his company has set itself the goal of building a comprehensive ecosystem around its revolutionary technology and testing its use in as many industrial processes as quickly as possible.”
The companies expect this innovative technology to be ready for commercial use on an industrial scale in 2024 and anticipate jointly evaluating the best production site to test and develop this technology.