Pages 326 e 327 – Interceram 06/2012
7th Meeting of Producers and Users of Refractories of the Brazilian Association of Ceramics (ABCeram)
*R. Salomão
Focus on refractories for cement and lime industries
The 7th Meeting of Producers and Users of Refractories (7th ERUR) of the Brazilian Association of Ceramics (ABCeram) was held from October 17th to 19th in Curitiba, capital city of the brazilian state of Paraná, with the theme “Refractories for Cement and Lime Industry”.
Oven 120 delegates attended the 12 presentations, a round table debate and a visit to the Votorantim Cimentos facilities.
The ERUR is a biannual basis event that gathers most of the refractories community in Brazil and also presents an expressive foreign participation (mainly from South America, USA, Western Europe and China). Topics vary according with the technological and economic trends and in past editions versed about steelmaking (2010 and 2003), iron ore reduction (2008 and 2002), thermal insulation and oil and petrochemical industries (2006) and national and international trends (2000). This 7th edition was sponsored by the Refractories Division of the Brazilian Association of Ceramics (ABCeram) and the companies Refrasa, Skamol, Alfran Brasil, Insertec Dedini, Elfusa, Global Heat Transfer, Thermojet, SER (Treibacher Schleifmittel, Almatis, Armil and Cerâmica Porto Ferreira also supported ABCeram).
The event was chaired by Ulisses Prado of IBAR and the coprogram was coordinated by Rafael Salomão of University of São Paulo (USP), Adilson Chinelatto and Lucas Alves both of State University of Ponta Grossa (UEPG). The participants and speakers were from Brazil (mostly), Argentina, Chile, Peru, USA and Norway, being mostly industry people, but also researchers, academics and undergraduate students.
Technical program
During the opening ceremony, the keynote speaker Álvaro Lorenz, Votorantim Cimentos, presented a review about the over 100 years old “Cement Industry in Brazil”. Amongst the data presented, Brazilian cement industry was pointed out as one of the most efficient regarding the thermal consumption per ton of clinker produced (around 870 Kcal/Kg clinker), the use of alternative fuels (spent tires, recycled plastics and biomass), pozzolanic and slag additions (up to 48 % in some cases) and CO2 emission (576 Kg CO2 / ton cement versus 631 Kg CO2 / ton cement worldwide).
With 80 producing unities, Brazil consumed 64.2 million tons of cement in 2012 (over 98 % produced domestically).
The second day of the event was opened by Ulisses do Prado from IBAR with the presentation “A Retrospective on Refractories for Cement Kilns” and this was followed by Marco Rodrigues and Luis Arruda from FLSmidth speaking about “Technology and Innovations for Cement and Pyro Metallurgy Industry”. Following, Waldir Resende from IBAR presented recent findings in “Refractory Castables
for Cement and Lime: Evolution, Properties and Placing Methods” and Eliane Taveira, Brick Solutions/3L&T, spoke about “Maintenance Cycle for Refractories”. After lunch, Mauro Seabra from Brazilian Association of Lime Producers (ABPC) talked about “Social Responsibility on The Lime Sector”, presenting important data about the 8.5 million tons lime pro duction in Brazil in 2012, such as main consuming markets (civil construction and steel making with over 60 % of the total consumption) and the several actions performed by the ABPC to improve quality, safeness and the reduction of CO2 emissions. This was followed by Edson Deviti from Insertec Dedini and Rodolfo Santeli from Alfran presenting “Novel Refractory Technologies for Cement and Lime Industry”. Odenir Moreira from Thermojet spoke about “New Technologies in Thermal Solutions for Cement and Lime Factories”. Luís Cláudio Palhares from Protermq presented “Metallic Anchoring: Project, Application, Importance and PostMorten Analysis” discussing the
keyrole of the metallic anchoring on refractory linings.
The third day started with Marcelo Pecchio, Brazilian Association of Portland Cement (ABCP), and his presentation “The Brazilian Cement Industry and Its Actions Toward Sustainability”. Christian Bach, Skamol, spoke about “Enery Saving in Rotary Kilns: Projects and Improvements”, presenting some cases where the investment in thermal insulation on rotary kilns led to significant energy loss reduction.
In the sequence, a round table with Robson Liz, Reframax, Eliane Taveira and Antonio Astudillo of Alfran, Jeferson Pedroso, Votorantim Cimentos, Víbio Andrade, SER Construtora, and Dair Fávaro, Cimentos Itambé, discussed “Alternatives for Increase Production and Reduce Refractories Maintenance Idle Time”.
After lunch, Taner Augusto Maia, from Togni Refratários, presented an interesting case study on “Lime Kiln Refractories: An Alternative Proposal to The Conventional Preshaped 70 % Al2O3 Materials”.
Finally, Márcio Geraldo de Oliveira, Magnesita Refratários S.A.
spoke about “Basic Refractories: Stateofart and Innovation”.
About ABCerm
ABCeram was founded in 1953 as a civil nonprofit organization in the city of São Paulo with the mission of facilitating interaction among ceramics professionals by means of regular meetings, fairs, training courses, scientific and technical nationalinternational exchange, and promoting development and innovation in the field.
Besides “The Meeting of Producers and Users of Refractories”, ABCeram also hosts “The Brazilian Congress on Ceramics”, “The Meeting of Miners and Consumers” and “The Latin American Conference on Powder Technology”. ABCeram is responsible for five main publications. The oldest one is the journal “Cerâmica”, which has been continuously published since 1955, reaching its 348th issue at the end of 2012. “Cerâmica Industrial and Mate rials Research” (published in English), a newsletter and the “Brazilian Yearbook of Ceramics” are additionally published by ABCeram. These are open access magazines that can be found in the freeaccess electronic data base “SciELO” (Scientific Electronic Library Online).
* Prof. Dr. Rafael Salomão, Universidade de São Paulo (EESC/SMM),
Av. Trabalhador Sãocarlense, 400 13566590,
São Carlos – SP, Brazil. EMail:
rsalomao@sc.usp.br