Air Products' On-Site Oxygen Production And Oxy-Combustion Technology Help CEMEX To Achieve Ambitious Environmental Objectives

London, UK - Air Products, through its Spanish subsidiary Carburos Metálicos, has signed a major contract with CEMEX - world leader in the construction materials industry - to provide five of its Spanish' cement plants with its Prism on-site oxygen generators and oxy-combustion system. The combination of these innovative and highly-efficient technologies, will generate significant savings at each operating site whilst considerably reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.

Oxy-combustion technology consists of injecting oxygen directly into the furnace burners creating greater yield, accelerated combustion, and the potential of increasing use of alternative fuels by up to 80%, thereby decreasing the consumption of fossil fuel and considerably reducing CO₂ emissions to atmosphere.

The proposed solution consisted of installing a Prism Vacuum Swing Adsorption (VSA) oxygen generator coupled to a backup tank, designed to supply the furnace with gas at low cost, with maximum flexibility and without the risk of supply disruption. The benefits of on-site generation are numerous:

• The cement plant is no longer dependent on deliveries by a tanker as it produces its own oxygen at the site premises
• Transport costs are reduced along with carbon footprint
• The five generators are standardised, therefore interchangeable and can be relocated to another site if necessary

A team consisting of CEMEX and the Air Products' Innovation Department has completed numerous trials to ensure that the expected benefits have been achieved, with the results largely exceeding expectations. The five Spanish facilities capable of using this new technology are: Buñol (Valencia), Castillejo (Toledo), Alicante, Alcanar (Tarragona) and Morata de Jalón (Saragossa).

CEMEX has set itself the ambitious goal of using alternative fuels to cover 35% of its energy consumption by 2015 in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Reduction of CO₂ emissions to atmosphere is expected to be 450,000 tonnes, the equivalent of the discharge produced by 180,000 vehicles covering around 15,000 km over a year. Thanks to Air Products, it is well on the way to achieving this.