A TEC participated in the 7th edition of the colloquia of Spanish cement producers from 17th to 19th of November 2009 in Málaga, represented by our Managing Director Mr. Guenther Schwaiger and by our sales manager for Spain and Portugal Mr. David Ruhdorfer.

This year’s motto of the colloquia which has been organized by the Spanish cement review “Cemento Hormigón” was “Development, Innovation and Sustainability: the three cornerstones of the cement industry”.

As a consequence, the programme was mainly focused on the topics environment, sustainable use of resources, innovation and technical development of processes and products, plants and facilities upgrading experiences, and safety & health.

A TEC handed in two articles for publication which were both accepted by the technical jury:

• A practical guide to the use of alternative fuels
• Castle Cement Ketton – application of a chlorine bypass system

Both articles do not only go along very well with this year’s motto, but also represent core topics where A TEC has got a vast expertise and experience.

For the first time, this year we were also invited to give a presentation of one of our papers.

So in the afternoon of the first day, David Ruhdorfer spoke about the five step approach of A TEC to the use of alternative fuels in the clinker production process. Although every speaker had only 14 minutes for his speech, David managed to give the present audience a consistent overview on the topic of alternative fuels. Once more, the message of A TEC to the plant managers was very clear: before starting to use alternative fuels, the plant managers must already know about the impact that the new fuels will have on the clinker production process because every type of alternative fuel will change the process and have an impact on the plant behaviour.

The second article treats the successful implementation of a chlorine bypass system at Castle Cement’s plant in Ketton (UK), where A TEC proved once more that we are the world leader in the field of bypass systems.