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12 Apr 2023
Mannok and FLSmidth are celebrating the successful implementation of the FUELFLEX® Pyrolyzer, a new combustion system which has almost eliminated the use of fossil fuel in the most carbon intensive stage of cement production at Mannok’s plant, reducing 240 tonnes of carbon emissions per day, whilst significantly reducing NOx emissions.
To mark this significant milestone in the completion of this international R&D project, which is set to transform the cement manufacturing industry and is helping Mannok’s cement production be more sustainable, the two companies held a launch event with politicians, stakeholders, industry experts, government agencies, local councils and schools from the Republic of Ireland, the UK and Denmark attending.
The new FUELFLEX® system is enabling Mannok, at present, to replace 90% of its coal use with SRF (solid recovered fuels), which would otherwise go to landfill, in the pre-calcination stage of cement production and it is working towards eliminating the use of coal.
FLSmidth, the Danish engineering company which created the new technology, partnered with Mannok on the development of the world’s first pilot of the FUELFLEX® Pyrolyzer back in 2018, and during the event on Thursday 30th March, Lars Skaarup Jensen, FLSmidth’s Research and Development Specialist, explained the collaboration of the two companies for the design and testing of the system over the last four years, saying,
“When we reached out to Mannok, FUELFLEX® was still very much at concept stage. We’d performed some testing in our lab in Denmark, but that is very different to deployment in a fully operational cement works.
With the development and testing of completely new technology like this, you can expect it to throw up some issues along the way, and this pilot was not without its challenges. It required design revisions following initial tests to ensure continuous running of the FUELFLEX®, which involved expertise from both Mannok and FLSmidth. These revisions addressed issues which could only be identified through real-life testing, and we are very pleased that the system has now been running smoothly and effectively and has remained in operation for around nine months now.
It was a brave decision by Mannok to partner with us in the development of this world first technology, and it took great commitment and expertise on both sides to achieve a successful outcome which has enormous potential for cement producers globally.”
With the technology operating successfully at the Irish producer’s facilities since July 2022, it has already enabled Mannok to cut its fossil fuel use in the cement production process.
With cement production under a significant spotlight in the decarbonisation stakes, such a development could be a game changer for the industry, and has already gained international attention, with delegations from Europe and Asia visiting the Irish plant in recent months to see the FUELFLEX® in action.
Pat Barry, CEO of Irish Green Building Council, explains the responsibility of cement production to overall carbon emissions and how this technology will benefit the industry,
“The FUELFLEX® is an incredible piece of engineering and it’s a big opportunity to decarbonise cement. It deals immediately with the fuel stage of cement production as coal is replaced.
Embodied carbon is responsible for 14% of carbon emissions in Ireland and cement production is a large part of these emissions, we will always need some form of cement, so it is critical to find innovation to decarbonise cement for the construction industry to achieve net zero.”
The production of clinker, a precursor to cement, is the most fuel intensive part of the process, and the pre-calcination phase accounts for the largest portion of fossil fuel use, 60% of all fossil fuels in Mannok’s case. The ability to completely displace this use of coal is undoubtedly a major leap forward for the industry, and for Mannok, a company which has clearly and publicly defined its ambitious decarbonisation targets, as Operations Director, Kevin Lunney, explains,
“The key challenge for the entire cement industry is decarbonisation, and it’s our primary area of focus. We’ve set ambitious targets to reduce our carbon emissions by a third by the end of the decade, and go on to achieve net zero by 2050. This requires innovative thinking, and we’re very proud to partner with FLSmidth and to help provide leadership in this space.
The success of the FUELFLEX® technology is a big win for us, as we are now on track to eliminate all coal use in the pre-calcination phase of production, which surpasses our initial expectations of displacing 80%. This will remove around 40,000 tonnes of coal, and the resulting 58,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, so it’s a significant leap forward in our decarbonisation journey.”
Beyond fossil fuel displacement and the resulting reduced carbon emissions, another environmental benefit of this new technology is the reduction in Nitrogen Oxides, or NOx emissions, which the team at Mannok hadn’t really expected to achieve at the outset. There are very strict limits to permitted NOx emissions, and Mannok, like many cement producers, has used significant quantities of ammonia water to ensure compliance with these regulatory limits. Since the introduction of FUELFLEX®, the company has practically eliminated its use of ammonia water, and is running at around 20% below its permitted NOx limits on occasion, which brings an unexpected commercial benefit by significantly reducing the previous need of 48,000 litres of expensive ammonia water per week.
The new FUELFLEX® system achieves all of this by enabling the increased use of SRF as an alternative energy source to coal in the pre-calcination stage. The SRF is non-recyclable commercial waste, which would otherwise go to landfill, so this also serves a very beneficial waste management purpose, as the Cement General Manager at Mannok, Damian Reilly, explains,
“We’ve been using SRF in our clinker production since 2014, and have progressively displaced more coal, until we reached maximum capacity with our existing calciner set-up. As a new combustion system which improves the efficiency of our existing set-up, the FUELFLEX® technology is set to enable full coal displacement with SRF in our pre-calcination process.
The SRF we use is sourced from the counties immediately surrounding the plant, so we’re reducing shipping costs and carbon footprint of imported fossil fuels by increasing our capacity to replace it with locally sourced SRF. As well as the obvious environmental benefits, this SRF is a much more commercially viable fuel source, particularly given the surging energy costs, and the more SRF we can use in Ireland, the less will be exported to cement kilns across Europe, so it’s a win-win.”
With such significant environmental and commercial benefits, FLSmidth’s FUELFLEX® technology is likely to become a feature of cement production works across the globe, and for Mannok, this is the first major success in the company’s pursuit of net zero, with further significant innovation in sustainable energy already underway.