Why wet process of manufacture of cement is most popular in India?

In current world Cement plays vital role in building economic development of any country.Indian cement industry is the largest cement producing country in the world, next only to China.The first cement company became operational in Porbandar, Gujarat with a capacity of 10,000 tons in 1914. The Industry recorded an exponential growth with the introduction of partial decontrol in 1982 culminating in total decontrol in 1989 and delicensing in 1991.With the adoption of massive modernization and assimilation of state-of-the-art technology,Indian cement plants are today the most energy-efficient and environment-friendly and are comparable to the best in the world in all respects, whether it is size of the kiln, technology,energy consumption or environment-friendliness.

The cement industry contributes to environmental cleanliness by consuming hazardous wastes like Fly Ash (around 30 Mnt) from Thermal Power Plants and the entire 8 Mnt of granulated Slag produced by Steel manufacturing units and also using alternate fuels and raw materials using advanced and environment friendly technologies.

Cement plant

 Production

At present, the Installed Capacity of Cement in India is 500 MTPA with production of 298 Million Tonnes per annum. Majority of the cement plants installed capacity (about 35%) is located in the states of south India. In PAT scheme, Total Installed Capacity of Cement in India is 325 MTPA which contributes to 65% coverage of total installed capacity in India.

With the increase in growth of infrastructure, the cement production in India is expected to be 500 Million Tonnes by the year 2020 and 800 Million Tonnes by 2030.

Per Capita consumption of cement

The per capita consumption of cement in India is 195 kg which is far less than world average of 500 kg and 1000 kg of China.

Type of Process

There are mainly two types of Cement Manufacturing process:

a) Wet Process  b)Dry Process

Wet Process

Under wet process type, the raw materials are mixed with water so as to ensure better homogenization which leads to better quality of clinker. In the whole process, moisture content in the slurry is 35-50%. This results in higher requirement of heat which in turn require high amount of fuel. Hence in terms of energy consumption, this process consumes more amount of thermal energy. The length of Kiln in wet process is larger as compared to dry process.

Dry Process

Under dry process type, the raw materials are kept dry by utilizing the heat from Raw Mill resulting in poor homogenization which leads to inferior quality of clinker. In the whole process, moisture content in the slurry is 12%. This results in lower requirement of heat which in turn require low amount of fuel. Hence in terms of energy consumption, this process consumes less amount of thermal energy.

PAT Scheme

The Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme of Ministry of Power, Government of India has so far covered 126 numbers of cement plants in India targeting in reduce specific energy consumption since its inception from 2012 on wards.

Based on the threshold defined, 85 number of cement plants were included as DCs and their cumulative energy consumption were 15.01 million MTOE in PAT Cycle-1. Based on their specific energy consumption level, these DCs were given SEC target reduction of an average 5.43% resulting in 0.815 million TOE energy consumption reduction in absolute terms. The cement sector constituted 12.19% of the overall energy saving target under PAT Cycle 1.

The total savings achieved by Cement sector covering 75 number of designated consumers in PAT Cycle I is 1.48 million MTOE which is 0.665 million MTOE in excess of the target.

 At present, the energy consumption of these cement unit as described as designated consumers is 23.246 million tonne of oil equivalent. The target given for them from PAT Cycle –II on wards is 0.94 million tonne of oil equivalent.

Global Bench-marking in terms of Energy Consumption

The table below depicts that Average Specific Thermal and Electrical energy consumption of India’s cement plants are below as compared to their global counterparts. Thus creating them as role model in World Cement Industry.

Key Stakeholders

Therefore, key stakeholders plays crucial role in development of energy efficient cement industry thereby reducing the energy consumption and mitigating the challenge of carbon reduction emissions.

The key stake holders are:-

1. The Cement Industries (Including PAT and Non-PAT)

2. The Government agencies such as Ministry of Power, Ministry of Environment and Climate                    Change, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, National Council of Cement and Building Materials etc.

3. The Cement Manufacturing Association.

4. Other agencies such as CII, TERI, FICCI, GIZ etc.