50th Annual Conference Sets Records

This year’s 50th Annual IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference held May 18-22 in Miami had a record attendance of 1,186. A total of twenty six individual papers, two panel discussions, and four tutorials were presented at the conference. PCA’s Manufacturing Technical Committee meetings and the PCA Annual Safety Awards Luncheon were also held in conjunction with the conference.

Papers were presented from each of the Cement Industry Committee’s (CIC) working groups. These include: General Practices, Environmental Maintenance and Safety, Automation, Drives and Related Products, and Power Generation Distribution and Related Products. First place was awarded to Nicholas Miller, Dillip Guru, Ken Clark for their paper on, “Wind Generation Applications for the Cement Industry.” Don Taubert of Capitol Aggregates and Wayne Adaska, Director of Public Works, received second place for “Beneficial Uses of Cement Kiln Dust.” The third place award went to Michael Jones, Dennis Laudal, and John Pavlish for their paper on, “Mercury Emission Monitoring for the Cement Industry.” All twenty six individual papers are available on the conference proceedings CD-ROM, through PCA’s bookstore.

Tutorial presentations included; Medium Voltage Drive Selection for Cement Plant Applications, Learn More, Earn More! Effective Training Techniques for the Cement Industry, Safety Considerations for Solid Fuel Systems, and Short Circuit/Overcurrent Coordination/Arc Flash/Harmonics.

Panel discussions on the use of vertical roller mills (VRMs) for finish grinding and on expert automation systems were extremely popular with participants. The VRM panel highlighted installations at: Holcim plants in Ecuador and New Jersey, the California Portland Cement Company plant in Mojave, California, the Salt River Materials Group plant in Clarkdale, Arizona, the St. Lawrence plant in Mississauga, Ontario, and the Titan plant in Thessaloniki. Finish grinding of both portland cement and slag were addressed.

PCA’s Manufacturing Technical Committee (MTC) heard an update from PCA Chief Economist and Staff Vice President Ed Sullivan. Research results on the use of cement kiln dust for wastewater treatment were presented by Professor Margaret Walsh of Dalhousie University (view PowerPoint presentation), while Bob Schreiber of Schreber Yonley Associates presented results of the current state-of-practice for Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction (SNCR) in cement plants (view PowerPoint presentation). Greg Mayes, Research and Development Manager for TXI, gave the committee a presentation on, “Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Cement Industry” (view PowerPoint presentation). Updates from the Environment and Energy and Occupational Health and Safety Committees were presented by Ty Wilson from PCA’s Washington, D.C. office. Vice Chairman Hans Steuch was honored for his service with a framed copy of a vintage concrete pavement ad. The ad includes an endorsement from famed cartoonist Walt Kelly; creator of Pogo.

More than 500 attendees toured Titan America’s Pennsuco Facility. The facility nearly doubled its production capability from one million to 2.4 million tons annually with the completion of its modernization project in 2004. This new state-of-the-art facility is the largest in Florida and is recognized as one of the most environmentally friendly in the United States. Highlights of the tour included: Titan’s mammoth dragline, the 18-acre material storage building, 15,000 ton kiln feed storage silo, 65 meter long by 5 meter diameter kiln, and automated laboratory facility. Attendees were able to get their picture taken at the top of the preheater tower. These photographs will soon be available on the conference website at www.ieeepcaconference.org. Also included in the tour was Titan’s concrete block plant.

The 2009 conference is scheduled for May 31-June 4 in Palm Springs, California. The host hotel is the Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort and Spa. Participants will tour the brand new TXI Oro Grande Cement Plant.