DUSHANBE, February 11, 2010, Asia-Plus — One of six rotary kilns at State Unitary Enterprise Tojikcement (Dushanbe cement plant) will be shifted from natural gas to coal already in the first quarter of this year, according to Tojikcement.
“The special equipment will be delivered from China until the end of February,” said the source, “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.”
According to him, shifting the plant from natural gas to coal will allow halving fuel expenses.
“We plan to shift all the plant’s rotary kilns to coal gradually, during several year,” said the source, “Tajikistan has enough coal reserves and we will not have to purchase natural gas from abroad.” He added that they have purchased some 4,000 tons of coals to this day.
The source noted that one kiln conversion would come to approximately 7 million somoni (some US$1.6 million).
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.
