A major overhaul of the Rugby Kiln, representing a £9 million investment, began at the end of February 2020. As always, safety remains the number one priority throughout.

The targeted duration for this stop is 19 days as this will enable UK Cement to get through the shutdown without needing to buy Cement from third parties or imports from abroad.

As well as the usual Rugby employees, approximately 400 additional contractors are involved in the maintenance, repair, replacement and cleaning of the kiln, raw mill, fuel mill and storage systems. At peak shift, there has been around 300 people on site.

There are two major project works being carried out during the shutdown in addition to major overhaul work: new coal feeders (Pfister) with removal of old Poldos feed systems and new burner pipe installation.

New Pfister coal feeders  (£0.5 million investment)

This project sees the replacement of the two Poldos units for the feeding of coal to the kiln main burner and pre-heater tower. The current units do not have the turn down, i.e. are unable to feed below 1.5 tph, making the control of tower temperatures more challenging at elevated alternative fuel levels. The new units will be able to achieve a coal feed rate as low as 100kg/hr, allowing much tighter control of temperatures and hence improving production stability.

New burner pipe (£0.6 million investment)

A new burner pipe is being installed during the kiln shutdown. This is a Unitherm burner which is proving highly successful across CEMEX to increase alternative fuel burning at the front end of the kiln.

The intention of the installation is to increase alternative fuel usage rates by at least a further 10%, whilst also reducing NOx emissions.

Picture: Unitherm Burner (Best available technology)