Cost effective energy information system for cement manufacturers

Cement plants worldwide share a multitude of business and operational challenges, ranging from increasing plant availability and production to cutting energy consumption per ton, in addition to taking control of emissions. Over the last 10 years, there have been very significant improvements in the reduction in energy per ton of production in cement manufacturing in some countries; however, cement companies are now struggling to identify more opportunities to reduce their energy per unit of production, or even to compare site to site or line to line. Modern information and communication technologies (ICT) might be an answer; however, complex ICT solutions often have a very poor success rate, with some reports suggesting 30% of complex ICT projects are canceled before they are completed. This industry requires a solution that is affordable and tailored for cement manufacturers, meaning a solution that would eliminate complexity and adaptations that increase the likelihood of the ICT project´s failure. This paper proposes a simple and cost-effective information system dedicated for cement manufacturers that is able to provide energy and production data together, thereby exposing opportunities to optimize the energy per ton. Additionally, we will be focused on key indicators of the cement industry that can be automatically monitored with the implementation of this solution.