The 13th NCB International Seminar on Cement & Building Material was conducted at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi/India from 19-22 Nov, 2013 under the aegis of the National Council for Cement and Building Materials, the Indian umbrella organization under the administrative control of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Every two years NCB organizes this international seminar that offers an exchange of ideas for manufacturers of cement, lime, gypsum and other building materials, users, construction agencies, plant vendors and machinery suppliers, designers, scientists and academics to come together. Over the years the number of participants increased recently up to over 800 and reflects the importance of the Indian market and this conference. Supplementary to the seminars a technical exhibition on the themes of the seminar has been organized in parallel, where 135 international companies presented their offers at their booths. The seminar was inaugurated by His Excellence Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry - Dr. E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan and the inaugural session was graced by top management of the industry and many high ranking officials. Addressing foreign investors he invited the industry to transfer technology and to support a growing young society. In his welcome address, Mr. Ashwani Pahuja, Director General of NCB outlined his thoughts for green and sustainable growth using the three Ps - Profit, People and Planet. He cited the WBCSD Low-Carbon Roadmap as a committing document for the Indian Cement Industry identifying the main projects for GHG reduction, process optimization and development of new binder systems as there are fly ash, slag or composite cements. Also, he stated that co-processing of alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) is expected to play an important role in the future of the Indian cement industry beside waste heat recovery, energy efficient grinding systems or the development of new binder systems and their durable application. During the four days, over 100 experts from India and abroad partly presented concurrently over twenty sessions with themes revolved around material sourcing, management and quality assurance, alternative chemical approaches and cement types, nanotechnology and its environmental relief as well as its economical benefits. Cost cutting and sustainability were the fundamental issues of many presentations as well as of the special lecture by Prof. Karen Scrivener on low carbon cement based on clinker, calcined clay and limestone. A large spectrum of case studies is shown by real cement engineers including specification of AFR, latest technologies for waste pre-processing to appropriate process fuels as well as solutions for storage and handling, latest generation of main burners and newest combustion devices for lump size alternative fuels are shown. The effects of partial substitution of pet coke and coal on the pyroprocess, clinker and impediments for higher thermal substitution rate are discussed, too. And in the end the experiences with alternative raw materials and secondary cementitious materials in cement and concrete are addressed, too. The Co-Chairman, Dr. Hubert Baier from WhiteLabel-TandemProjects and Editor-in-Chief of ZKG International, summed up the expert’s session on AFR with the comparison of Sir Edward Salisbury’s wording ‘A weed is a flower growing in the wrong place’ and leads also to the conclusion that waste is also a resource in the wrong place. But after pre-processing highly educated real experts learn to accept and see the potential of that resource as an area of new advantages. Great efforts must be made to increase the recent thermal substitution rate (TSR) of 1 %. Projects in new plants and plant optimization have resulted in modern production lines and single...
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