Flowing smoothly ...

In addition to other interesting topics, such as the current technological status of white Portland cement production, energy-efficient grinding of feed materials, quantification of the rheology of powders during packaging and chemical characterisation of cements by means of NMR spectroscopy, for example, this issue also includes an article focussing on energy, this time in the form of a market survey on waste-heat recovery.

As recently as the closing months of last year, the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Mineral Resources (BGR) warned that „It will, in general, be necessary in the future to take supply shortages, accompanied by price hikes, into account. The main reason for this has less to do with geological availability than with inadequate investment and political/economic crises …“. In many regions, including Europe, necessary investments are increasingly being deferred, with the result that waste-heat recovery now constitutes one possible alternative for assuring supplies of power to meet energy needs, avoid sharp cost rises and compensate for capacity shortages in the public grid. I am sure that the future will bring even more interesting technical approaches and we, of course, will report them in detail!

In June 2013, I, Dr. Hubert Baier, will take over editorial responsibility for ZKG INTERNATIONAL from Dr. Thomas Weiss. Assisted by his team, Dr. Weiss has developed ZKG into an indispensable and highly relevant information medium for the industry, and simultaneously kept everything flowing smoothly. I look forward to continuing, supported by such a reliable team, to publishing expert technical reports by engineers for engineers for you in the future, too.

So: stay with us!