St. Marys cement plant wants to try alternative low-carbon fuels
CBC
The company that operates the cement plant in St. Marys, Ont., intends to apply to the provincial government seeking permission to use a different fuel mix, one the company says will produce fewer greenhouse gases.
Votorantim Cimentos, the plant's Brazil-based owner, will present its plan at a public meeting in town on Thursday night.
The company wants to use alternative low-carbon fuels (ALCF) to supplement the regular fuel mix of coal, natural gas and petroleum coke.
In an email to CBC News, the company said ALCF's "typically include wood and paper or plastics that cannot be recycled and are not odorous to partially offset an amount of traditional fuels."
The company said a similar change was put in place at a cement plant the company operates in Bowmanville, Ont. Material burned there includes "biomass, wood from construction and demolition and non-recyclable paper and plastics," the company said in an email.
The company used ALCFs at the St. Marys plant as part of a two-week demonstration trial back in May 2011. The burning of ALCFs as a permanent part of the operation would require an amendment to the plant's operating permit with the province. As part of that application, the company wants to study the use of ALCFs at the plant by burning up to 100 tonnes of it a day.
The plant at 585 Water St. South has been the source of past complaints, mainly about the odour from the plant's emissions.
To make cement — the key component of concrete — limestone and other materials are heated to about 1,400 C in a massive kiln.
When asked why the company is considering switching the fuel mix, the plant's environmental manager Ruben Plaza said it's a move to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
"Lower CO2 emissions is the first consideration and, equally as important, the material has to be approved and available in sufficient quantities with a reliable and sustainable, long-term supply," he said in an email to CBC News.
"The material also must be within reasonable proximity to the plant such that the emissions generated by the transport of the material don't offset the environmental benefits of using the material as fuel."
The public meeting about the proposed fuel mix change will happen Thursday, Nov. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. at St. Marys Golf & Country Club at 769 Queen St. E.
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