The agreement with the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) at Columbia University and City College of New York is designd to built a better understanding of the role that alternative fuels play in society and the environment.
Cemex said that the substitution of fossil fuels with alternatives results in benefits including lower energy costs and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the use of greenfield sites for landfill.
“This collaboration with EEC underscores the urgency of searching for alternative fuels given the continuing rise of oil prices and the increase of waste in landfills,” said Cemex's senior vice president of energy and sustainability Luis Farias,. “The alternative fuel strategy has already enabled Cemex to avoid the emission of approximately 2.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year.”
The work will be led by Columbia University’s Professor Nickolas Themelis and Professor Marco Castaldi from the City College of New York. It will focus on waste combustion technologies implemented in Cemex kilns in the United States and Mexico.
“The study is of great interest to the EEC because cement production is the largest materials-based high-temperature process worldwide, therefore, cement kilns present a great potential to reduce the amount of wastes in landfills,” said Themelis.
Cemex has invested more than US$175m since 2005 in adjusting its production process and installing equipment to use alternative fuels in its cement kilns. In 2012, it achieved approximately a 27% alternative fuel substitution rate in its cement production. Cemex is on track to achieve its target of a 35% by 2015.
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