A subsidiary of global cement producer LafargeHolcim, Lafarge Africa Plc, is erecting a new coal grinding plant in its Nigerian factory, Ewekoro, with the help of a Loesche mill.
According to LafargeHolcim, until now, this cement plant in Ewekoro - the second for the customer Lafarge Africa Plc - was set up for another fuel, namely gas. However, the gas supply proved to be so unreliable that it repeatedly led to fuel shortages. Therefore, a new coal grinding plant is being erected to remove the dependency upon the gas supply.
The new mill line handles unloading and storage, comminution, metering, drying and grinding, as well as raw coal storage.
Loesche was selected by the general contractor CBMI Construction Co. to deliver a coal mill in Nigeria. Local lignite and pet coke are used as grinding materials; the grinding capacity for the coal is 23 tph at 23% R90 µm and for the pet coke 16 t/h at 3% R90 µm.
The engineering, the core components of the mill and of the classifier with central feed, the rotary gate and the mill gearbox with a nominal power of 450 kW are all included in the scope of services.
Naturally, the reliable coal mill type corresponds to the ATEX standard to ensure safe operation. This is in line with LafargeHolcim's declared goal, defining health and safety as an overarching value.
In addition to the two production lines in Ewekoro, Lafarge Africa Plc also has a third in Nigeria in the same state. Together they produce five types of cement with a total of 4.5 million tpy.
As the customer has already ordered the raw material and cement mills for the Ewekoro factory from Loesche before, a cement plant is once again fully equipped with different mill types from Loesche.