DUSHANBE, September 16, 2011, Asia-Plus — The state unitary enterprise, Tojikcement (Dushanbe cement plant), now operates at only 30 percent of its rated capacity, the Tojikcement deputy director, Muzaffar Hakimov, told Asia-Plus n an interview.
According to him, the plant now produces up to 900 tons of cement per day. Hakimov attributes decline in the production volume to insufficient natural-gas supplies.
“We now receive 9,000 cubic meters of natural gas per hour and this amount is enough to keep operational only two large rotary kilns,” said Hakimov, “This amount of cement, however, is enough to provide with cement anyone in the country. We provide with cement all the most significant facilities in the country, including the sites for construction of the Roghun and Sangtuda-2 hydroelectric power plants (HPP).” Hakimov added that a coal-powered rotary kiln has not yet been installed at the plant.
One of rotary kilns at the Dushanbe cement plant was supposed to be shifted to coal last March but installation of the coal-powered kiln has been postponed for technical reasons, the deputy director noted.
Representatives from Russian company, Sofo, were in Tajikistan in March this year to conduct the environmental impact assessment for the coal-powered kiln jointly with their Tajik colleagues.
We will recall that the project for shifting of one the plant’s rotary kilns from natural gas to coal has been designed in cooperation with Chinese company, Jun Hao. One kiln conversion comes to approximately 7 million somoni and all plant’s rotary kilns are expected to be shifted to coal gradually, during several years.
The Dushanbe cement plant has four large rotary kilns with capacity of 600 tons cement per year each and two small rotary kilns with capacity of 300 tons each.
Cement kilns are used for the pyroprocessing stage of manufacture of Portland and other types of hydraulic cement, in which calcium carbonate reacts with silica-bearing minerals to form a mixture of calcium silicates. The cement kilns are the heart of the cement production process: their capacity usually defines the capacity of the cement plant.
Six cement plants now function in Tajikistan.
