WCA AWARDS OUTSTANDING INDUSTRY ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

World Cement Association awards outstanding industry achievements at annual conference in China.

The 7^th World Cement Association (WCA) Annual Conference convened on May 18/19 2024, in Nanjing, China, focusing on the theme of ‘Strategy and Performance’.

Bringing together prominent industry figures and executives, the event delved into crucial topics such as carbon trading, cost reduction, global demand outlook, management transformation, and advancements in supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).

In addition to expert panel discussions and presentations, the conference recognised outstanding contributions through several industry awards. Winners were announced across various categories, including the ‘Health and Safety Award’, ‘Climate Action Award’, ‘Model Plant Award’, and ‘Innovation Award’.

Ciments d’Atlas (CIMAT) won the ‘Health and Safety Award’, recognising their substantial contributions to enhancing safety standards within their cement plants. CIMAT’s comprehensive approach, implemented over five years, has effectively engaged their workforce, and demonstrated tangible improvements in safety metrics. CIMAT were also recognised for their continuous improvement project which has optimised performance as demonstrated by consistent improvement in many KPIs.

This year’s ‘Climate Action Award’ was awarded to Tianshan Material’s CUCC Qingzhou Plant, in recognition of the successful commissioning of the world’s first oxyfuel CCUS system which is capturing 200 000 tonnes per year of CO₂ emissions, validating the feasibility of oxyfuel systems in cement plants and setting exemplary practices for others. Sinoma International was recognised for the ‘Climate Action Technical and Engineering Award’ for the team’s technical and engineering work for this project.

The utilisation of large amounts of complex, low quality, heterogeneous AFR introduces significant negative impacts on the cement manufacturing process. The ‘Innovation Award’ was won by Huaxin Cement’s Chongde Plant for the team’s innovative use of machine learning to optimise the utilisation of challenging alternative fuels, in their case mainly high moisture municipal solid waste (MSW), showcasing a pioneering solution to a widespread industry challenge.

Tianshan Material’s Huaikan Plant won the ‘Model Plant Award’ for exemplary performance in various elements of the business, including energy efficiency, emissions, productivity, maintenance, and safety. The plant has really impressive KPIs such as specific heat consumption of less than 2.8 Gj/t and clinker power consumption below 42 kWh/t. Plant emissions are also very low with NOx averaging less than 75 mg/Nm³ and main stack dust emissions below 2 mg/Nm³.

“It’s been wonderful to return to China for our annual event hosted in Nanjing this year. I’m delighted to see the fruitful and collaborative discussions that unfolded, with many delegates expressing appreciation for the engaging and informative sessions. Congratulations are in order for the deserving award winners. Hearing about the successful initiatives and solutions presented here reinforces my belief that we’re collectively equipped to tackle the industry’s most pressing challenges,” says Ian Riley, WCA’s CEO.