Kerneos has invested €4m. in a briquetting plant at its calcium aluminate cement (CAC) facility in Dunkirk, north France, prompted by supply difficulties with suitable sized bauxite grades.
The French group said it had been a challenge securing suitable volumes of bauxite with desired size specifications from its two main sources, China and Greece, ie. preferring “large block bauxite” as opposed to the increasingly higher percentages of bauxite fines that are now predominantly supplied.
In China, this problem has arisen from changes in bauxite calcining technology, in effect since Chinese producers changed from shaft kiln to predominantly rotary kiln calcined bauxite production.
Kerneos’ CAC plant at Dunkirk, soon to have a new briquetting plant installed to accept a range of bauxite feedstock grades.Shaft and round kiln operations are deemed environmentally unfriendly by the Chinese government and have been closed over recent years leading to some tightness in...