Building clinker production in Nepal for Palpa Cement Industries Pvt Ltd

3 February 2021

Building domestic clinker production in Nepal

The Nepalese cement industry has traditionally been reliant on clinker imports from India to supply local grinding plants. But this is changing. The Nepalese government is imposing duties on clinker imports and encouraging cement producers to set up clinker production lines. Palpa Cement has been one of those to respond, setting up its own clinker manufacturing unit in Sunwal.

To make the most of the opportunity, Palpa Cement required a plant with low CAPEX but that still offered state-of-the-art technology from a proven supplier, as well as high efficiency in terms of fuel and energy consumption. After a competitive bidding process, the company awarded us the contract for the complete production line, including stacker/reclaimer, vertical roller mills for raw and coal grinding, pyroprocessing line, electrical distribution systems and plant control system.

Responding to the customer’s requirements

What swung the decision in our favour? It’s all about listening to the customer and bringing a solution to their needs

For example, we were able to eliminate the raw mill cyclone building by placing the cyclones above the raw meal silo, which was moved closer to the ground, while the kiln feed bin, usually found below the raw meal silo, was moved to the pre-heater platform. This avoided the need for additional cyclone support structures and for additional equipment like the silo feed bucket elevator, airslide conveyers, and blowers. As a result, the plant layout is the most compact in Nepal for its size.

“We strongly believe that this sort of layout is the way forward for smaller capacity plants. It not only reduces the equipment and civil costs; the simplified material handling requirements improve the reliability and reduce maintenance requirements, lowering the total cost of ownership,” said Mr. P.N.Bansal, Plant Head, Palpa Cement Industries Pvt Ltd.

The compact plant arrangement was not the only first for Nepal that we were able to provide for Palpa Cement. The customer also required a longer calciner and bigger cyclones for the preheater to accommodate 100% petcoke / any alternative fuel. A slewing stacker in order to stack one side of the stockyard with limestone and the other with fuel – a unique feature for this type of plant.

As a one-source supplier to the cement industry, we were able to respond to Palpa Cement’s needs and offer in-house solutions. Palpa Cement’s promoters visited two other Nepalese cement producers to see our technology in the real world. Both companies have FLSmidth-supplied clinker lines and cement grinding units. These local testimonials were an important source of confidence for Palpa Cement.

We are glad to be associated with FLSmidth, who lived up to their reputation and provided a state-of-the-art plant as per our requirements. Their team was always willing to listen and did their best to overcome the hurdles that came our way. They also worked effortlessly with our own engineers, which we really appreciated."
Mr. Vishnu AgarwalDirector, Palpa Cement Industries Pvt Ltd

Our complete scope of supply for Palpa Cement included all equipment, engineering, supervision of erection and commissioning, and training.

Limestone crushing and transport

350 tph longitudinal storage stacker
250 tph bridge scraper reclaimer

Raw grinding

Atox 35.0 vertical roller mill (160 tph @ 15% R at 90 µ)
RAR L 37.5 dynamic separator (116 rpm)
324,000 m3/hr process bag filter

Pyroprocess

JETFLEX® burner
Six-stage single string ILC preheater
1800 tpd kiln (3.45m dia. x 50 m)
CB 8 X 33 clinker cooler
CC110 X 220 clinker crusher (hammer - V belt)
198,000 m3/h ESP at the cooler vent

Coal grinding

Atox 17.5 vertical roller mile (20 tph @ 15% R at 90 µ)
RAKM 17.5 dynamic separator (348 rpm)
50,400 m3/hr process bag filter

A successful installation – and plans for more

Meanwhile, the communication hasn’t stopped. We are continuing to provide customer support through a PlantLine™ Service Agreement. This provides 24/7 access to remote support from our experts, who provide a priority response to urgent issues, as well as routine support, maintenance, and training.

The new clinker line secures supply for the company’s cement grinding unit, insulating the company against the cost and supply risks associated with clinker imports and allowing the company to compete in Nepal’s increasingly demanding cement market. It also opens up a potential new revenue stream in the form of clinker sales to third-party grinding units.

Importantly, the new production line allows the company to keep tighter control of its environmental impact. Transport of clinker in trucks from India was responsible for a significant amounts of air pollutions and dust emissions, particularly at transhipment points, while also posing risks to road safety. These are now avoided.

“We were able to meet Palpa Cement’s competitive cost budgets, without compromising quality, while justifying our solutions on any rate comparison the company made between our and competitor technologies,” concluded Kanagasabai G, Project Manager, FLSmidth. “Our guarantees also met the requirements, while our previous references proved we offered sturdy and reliable equipment. This gave Palpa Cement the confidence in us to deliver the capabilities they needed across the complete solution.