GCC-Rio Grande Inc., a subsidiary of Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua of Mexico, recently awarded FLSmidth a contract for approximately $55 million for a new 2,900-tpd greenfield plant in Pueblo, Colo. The facility will make use of the most advanced equipment and technology available, keeping emissions levels that meet the strict regulations set forth by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, says GCC.

The scope of the project starts at the limestone and raw materials storage departments and ends at the cement conveying equipment to the storage area. Major equipment includes: limestone and raw materials storage; raw mill feed system; raw mill with high-efficiency separator; blending CF silo and kiln feed system; five-stage ILC low-NOx preheater/calciner; 4.25-meter-diam × 50-meter-long Rotax-2 friction drive kiln with tangential suspension; multi-movable cross bar cooler with heavy-duty roller breaker; cooler vent system with heat exchanger and fabric filter; gas conditioning tower and fabric filter; and a vertical roller mill for grinding with high-efficiency ROKS separator.

Overall lifecycle costs are optimized by the use of the Roax-2 support kiln. the design consists of an electro-mechanical friction drive assembly, which is said to eliminate the need of a gear and pinion. The kiln tires are tangentially supported, minimizing kiln shell ovality and eliminating wear on the inside of the tires, thus reducing the need for maintenance and spare parts. Similarly, the multi-movable cross bar clinker cooler has fewer moving and wear parts, compared to a traditional design.

Several FLSmidth divisions will be a part of the project, including Pfister, MVT, FLS Airtech, and FLSmidth Automation. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in the second half of 2007. GCC-Rio Grande currently operates a 600,000-tpy plant in Tijeras, N.M.