NEWS RELEASE                                   OCTOBER 2011

Cement Industry Fluid/Gas Treatment and Control Purchases to Reach $10.5 Billion in 2012

The world’s cement industry will spend over $10.5 billion for fluid/gas treatment and control in 2012. The bulk of the expenditures will be to purchase and maintain air pollution control equipment.   This is the conclusion reached by the McIlvaine Company by extracting forecasts from a number of its continually updated reports.

The purchases are generated both by industry growth and tougher environmental restrictions. Much of the growth will be in developing countries. China produced 1.87 billion metric tons of cement in 2010, up 15.5 percent compared from 2009.  In 2011 production is pegged at over 2 billion metric tons. This contrasts to the slow market in the U.S.  The Portland Cement Association (PCA) published a U.S. cement consumption growth forecast increasing 0.2 percent for 2011, 0.4 percent in 2012 with a significant 16.4 percent increase in 2013.

New regulations relative to toxic air emissions in the U.S. will force plants to install scrubbers and other equipment in the next several years.  Cement plants rank high on the list of NO_x emitters. It is not surprising that regulations are tightening in Europe and the U.S. as well as in some other countries.

Air monitoring requirements are also tightening.  U.S. cement plants will be forced to install continuous emission monitors to measure mercury and also particulate mass. Maintenance and operation of the continuous emissions monitoring systems is far greater than with the simple opacity monitors.

The biggest expenditures will be for new fabric filters and for the bags and other consumables associated with them. Over the last two decades fabric filters have slowly replaced precipitators for capture of the fumes from the cement kilns. In addition, they are used for capturing dust emissions at all the transfer points. There are still a number of older precipitators in operation.  Replacement of rappers, collection plates and dust conveying components will be significant.

There is relatively little liquid treatment and flow control equipment being purchased by cement plants. In the 1970s most of the cement plants used a wet process but have converted over to the dry technology today. Some liquid fuels are burned. This requires some pumps and valves. Other flow control applications include lubrication and hydraulic control.

The air and gas movement and control is significant. There are fans and dampers associated with combustion and with the exhaust gases from the kilns and transfer points. The cement process is made more complex by the recirculation of the clinker kiln dust. Additional fans and air movement equipment are required for the various pneumatic conveying systems.

The overview of this market is shown at:

Fluid/Gas Treatment and Control: World Markets: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71

The following reports also address the industry: 

World Fabric Filter and Element Market:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#n021

Electrostatic Precipitators: World Market:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#n018

FGD World Markets:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#N027

Air Pollution Monitoring & Sampling World Markets:
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/air.html#no31

Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter World Markets: 
http://www.mcilvainecompany.com//brochures/air.html#n008