Dangote Cement Plc Annual Report 2021
Environment continued
On guard for continuous improvement
As the largest cement manufacturer in the African continent and
due to the geographical spread of our operational plants, we are
subject to numerous local, regional and national environmental
management and compliance regulations. Aside from being a
regulatory requirement, we are committed to maintaining good
environmental management standards and compliance with
all relevant environmental regulations in the countries where
we operate. Our commitment is in line with the principle of
continuous improvement and protecting the environment for
our collective good, particularly at and around our operation sites.
We are committed to complying with all applicable laws and
regulations in countries where we operate and ensuring
that our operations align with the Group-wide environmental
policies that are designed in line with relevant international best
practices on environmental management. In 2021, we obtained
a total of 297 environmental related permits, accreditations
and approvals to ensure compliance with our operations.
In the year we recorded no material incidents of environmental
non-compliance (including fines, penalties, or sanctions) reported
in our operations.
In addition to achieving compliance with relevant regulations
(i.e., permits, accreditations and licences), we obtained for som
eplants ISO 14001:2015 EMS certification to provide an external
assurance for existing environmental management systems.
We also obtained approvals for Environmental & Social Impact
Assessment (ESIA); Exploration Licences; as well as executed
Environmental Compliance Monitoring. We understand the
consequences of non-compliance with EMS standards and
environmental laws threatens shareholders' earnings and affects
our relationship with host communities.
From efficiency to operational transformation
Due to rising input costs and growth prospects of the business in
2021, the Company adopted a plant operational transformational
approach. This approach aimed to offset the continual increase in
input costs and minimise the producing cost through optimised
operations. Our strategy for incorporating modern processing
techniques to achieve greater operational efficiency relied
on improving capacity utilisation, energy savings, improved
environment, use of by-products, wastes, alternative raw
materials and fuel as well as meeting market requirements in
terms of quality.
Achieving improved operational efficiency is one of our key
environmental sustainability objectives, aimed at reducing
operational costs and consumption of production resources,
while also minimising CO2 emitted from our operational
processes. This will systematise the effective management of
energy in our operations.
The majority of our plants were built in the last 15 years and
designed to be intrinsically efficient by adopting cutting-edge
technology in cement production. Innovative technologies in
our plants include: (i) vertical roller mills for raw material, coal
and cement grinding, which are 40-50% more efficient than
traditional ball mills; (ii) pre-heater and pre-calcinate plants which
are regarded as the most efficient technology in the cement
industry; (iii) mechanical material transport and transfer system
equipped only with conveyors and bucket elevators, which are
up to 80% more efficient than the traditional pneumatic systems;
(iv) major process fans provided with Variable Frequency Drives
(VFD) to vary the ventilation rate based on the actual demand/
operating conditions, which can reduce the input power by 40-
80% (depending on the % flow rate), compared to more traditional
dampers; and so on.
Also, at Dangote Cement, we use large, modern rotary kilns
equipped with "pre-heaters" that use exhaust gases from the kiln
to heat raw materials as they pass down the pre-heater tower
to the kiln. Using these modern heat recycling systems helps
reduce the time spent in the kiln and the amount of fuel used to
convert raw material into clinker, as it guarantees that the raw
material is heated to about 900°C before it enters the kiln. This
process is good for costs and the environment, resulting in less
CO2 emissions per tonne of clinker and cementitious material
produced at Dangote Cement.
Overall, these measures have resulted in operational cost savings
and natural resource efficiency in our cement production,
compared to traditional and less modern plants.
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