Holcim to expand waste-to-energy facility in Davao

By Rudolf Ian G. Alama

Saturday 4th of August 2012

DAVAO CITY, Aug 4 (PIA) -- Holcim Philippines will construct a P250-million waste-to-energy stream facility aimed at lessening the demand for coal as a cement plant fuel in Davao City.

Roland Van Wijnen, chief operations officer of Holcim Philippines, said that the facility will include structures and buildings which are aimed at storing more rice husks, identified as a viable fuel alternative for the cement plant.

The plant consumes about 600 tons of coal to power its cement plant, and only about 5 percent are alternative fuel, such as canteen and office wastes. “Coal eats up about 40 percent of our production costs," Joseph Bernal manager of Holcim’s cement plant said.

He said that with the alternative fuel feeding system, the company hopes to source 30 percent of the cement plant fuel from alternative wastes such as rice husks, and most of the rice husks will be sourced from Davao region. “From 40 percent we hope to lessen coal costs to about 28 percent of our production cost,” Bernal said.

“The cement industry is an industry that does not produce wastes,” says Van Wijnen. He says the project will help Davao in disposing their other wastes. However, Van Wijnen said that the alternative fuel for the plant should have been properly segregated as they would rather focus on wastes that can no longer be recycled or reused into other products. He cited coconut husks, which can still be recycled into other materials.

Van Wijnen said that the savings from the facility will outstrip the cost of its installation. Also, the infusion of the capital for the project will expand the amount of wastes that the company can store. They are targeting to implement the project this year up to 2013.

With the construction of the facility, the cement plant can be made more sustainable.

Apart from lessening the demand for coal, the facility can also help in reducing wastes.

Bernal said that the expansion of the waste-to-energy stream facility will be placed at the Ilang cement plant. He said that unused production lines would give way for the expansion. (PIA/RG Alama)