Successful 14th NCB International Seminar
on Cement and Building Materials in New Delhi
The 14th NCB International Seminar on Cement & Building Materials took place at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi/India, from 01.12.-04.12.2015. The event is organized biennially by the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB), the Indian organization for research and technological development under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the Government of India. The NCB International Seminar is directed towards the entire cement, lime, gypsum and other building material industry, bringing together manufacturers, planners, users, scientists and suppliers.
This year’s edition could register over 1000 participants from India and abroad. As usual the semi-nar was accompanied by a technical exhibition where over 90 international companies presented their products and offers.
After the traditional lighting of the lamp and the welcome address by Mr. R.K. Goswami, NCB Organizing Secretary, Mr. Ashwani Pahuja, Director General of NCB, spoke about the technological perspective of India as the second largest cement producer in the world. Sustainability is one of the main focus points to be regarded in the research for greener and more sustainable cement types. Parts of this development have to be recovery, recycling and reuse. In his industrial perspective Mr. Ajay Kapur, MD & CEO, Ambuja Cements Limited, emphasized the importance of the NCB Seminar as a fruitful platform over the years. With India producing 7 % of the world cement capacity the importance of energy efficiency and savings as well as the promotion of the usage of alternative fuels and raw materials were stressed with regard to the responsibility to society and the environment.
Dr. S. Chouksey, Wholetime Director, J. K. Lakshmi Cement Limited, and Vice-Chairman in the NCB Board of Governors, focused on the necessity of minimizing emissions.
In his inaugural address chief guest Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, referred to the challenges of the Indian urbanization by 2030 and announced his becoming an ambassador for the cement industry for carrying forward the principle of “Polluters pay”. He offered to take up the matter with the Environment Ministry and other related departments on behalf of the cement industry.
The conference and exhibition were opened after the presentation of the NCB-CMA Special Publication “Cement & Construction Industry – Perspective for Sustainable Growth” to the audience.
About 190 presentations in 25 sessions were held during the four days of the conference. They were presented by experts from India and abroad. In addition two special lectures were given: Dr. (Prof.) Tesuya Ishida, University of Tokyo, Japan, spoke about “Multi-scale modeling of structural concrete for performance-based design”. Dr. Anjan K. Chatterjee, Conmat Technologies Private Limited, India, summarized the innovations concerning “New cements and binding materials” during the last three centuries.
Cement, concrete and the construction sectors
On the first day three plenary sessions were held in the Zorawar Auditorium. The sessions started with the topic “Raw materials resource management and mine planning” with the focus on the Indian limestone deposits and the substitution of limestone. Two sessions dealt with alternative fuels and raw materials. The large spectrum of case studies demonstrated the high impact that co-processing of AFR is supposed to have in the future of the Indian cement industry. When regarding the use of AFR also the resulting problems were to be discussed such as the increasing corrosion and opportunities for their reduction.
From the second day onward the technical sessions A were conducted in the Zorawar Auditorium, while the sessions B were held concurrently in the Ashoka Convention Hall.
The A sessions focused on all aspects of advances in the cement manufacturing process: First of all the innovations concerning grinding systems and their energy efficiency were presented. Afterwards the advances in the field of materials handling systems were dealt with. Another session showed the latest trends in the engineering of plants and machinery. Project engineering and system design was the next topic before dealing with refractory management and practices.
Case studies and company profiles on productivity enhancement and process optimization were presented in another two sessions. Examples of the trends concerning waste heat recovery were one of the aspects when dealing with the large spectrum of opportunities for energy efficiency and conservation improvement. The whole field of environmental concerns, such as the mitigation of global warming was also discussed during separate sessions.
The B sessions were dedicated to material sciences dealing with Portland, blended and special cements as well as concretes and alternate aggregates. In addition analytical methods and lab automation as well as latest trends and concepts were presented.
In each session a large number of case studies gave a very good insight into the implementation of new methods and processes or products. Covering a very wide spectrum of themes on cement, concrete and the construction sectors, the large number of presentations supplied a profound overview on recent research as well as processing trends.
Presenting the future outlook of the cement industry in the concluding session, Dr. S. Chouksey said that the role and responsibility of the cement industry has increased considerably in the light of the Government’s resolve to make India a country with world-class infrastructure. He assured that the Indian cement industry, fully aware of its responsibilities to the nation and the world, would go the extra mile to meet the future challenges for sustainable development and growth. The seminar concluded with the presentation of the National Awards for “Energy Efficiency”, “Environmental Excellence” and “Quality Excellence” in the Indian cement industry.
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