• Corporate
• BERALMAR HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

As is customary in southern Europe, BERALMAR's workforce will all take their vacations around the month of August. For this reason, we wish to inform our customers, suppliers and friends that during the month of August, activity at the BERALMAR facilities in Terrassa will follow this schedule:

• • Week 31 (29 July - 4 August) → Low activity: approximately 30% of the workforce.
• • Weeks 32 and 33 (5 - 18 August) → Minimal activity: telephone assistance and urgent delivery of spare parts.
• • Week 34 (19 - 25 August) → Low activity: approximately 20% of the workforce.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this reduced activity may cause. Starting Monday August 26 BERALMAR will return to normal levels of activity.

• THE TREATISE ON DRYING AND FIRING AT BERALMAR, READY IN SEPTEMBER

Artur Massaguer (left) and Santi Amposta (right)

BERALMAR has written a 300-page treatise on techniques for drying and firing structural ceramics, signed by Beralmar’s Technical Director, Artur Massaguer, and Head of R&D, Santi Amposta.

This treatise, which was announced about a year ago, will be distributed finally in parts in this Newsletter from next September in English, Spanish, French and Russian.

The treatise reviews in detail the current techniques of drying and firing, explained in relation to the technologies available at BERALMAR.

We hope that this treatise is relevant and useful to our newsletter readers.

• News and Accomplishments
• COMMISSIONING OF A BIOMASS HEAT GENERATOR SET IN BOSNIA

Fuel: pellets with a maximum moisture content of 6%.

The pneumatic fuel feed with grinder.

The set, with the combustion chamber in the foreground, coupled to a heat exchanger in the background.

In early July BERALMAR commissioned a biomass heat generator set at the TOP BANJA LUKA ceramics plant in Banja Luka (Bosnia), something we would like to highlight since this is the first installation of this type in Central Europe and the Balkans.

The set consists of:

1. 1) Fuel feeder, with a dispenser which passes the fuel through a grinder so that the particle size allows for pneumatic transportation propelled by a fan.
2. 2) A PULS/2000 combustion chamber with vertical fuel injection.
3. 3) A GB/2000 heat exchanger coupled to the combustion chamber, which then heats the clean, hot air to temperatures of up to 150 °C in the existing mixing chamber.

The fuel used is made of biomass pellet conglomerates with a calorific value of approximately 3,500 kcal/kg and a maximum moisture content of 6%.

The set provides a maximum power of 2,000,000 kcal/h, and replaces the entire previous fuel oil consumption. Given the high price that this fuel is reaching in the region, this will generate large savings on energy bills without any negative consequences for the dryer, since the end product with both fuel oil and biomass is clean, hot air.

From these pages we would like to thank TOP Banja Luka for their continuing confidence in Beralmar.

• NEW SOLID-FUEL FIRING INSTALLATION IN MOROCCO

BERALMAR has just booked a new order for solid fuel firing facility in Morocco.

It is for the BRIQUETERIE BRINOR of Berrechid, near Casablanca, which has entrusted BERALMAR with providing a MICROMATIC firing facility, using micronized petroleum coke consumption, to inject most of the fuel needed for a production of up to 900 tonnes of blocks per day.

This will be the 13th kiln operated using BERALMAR solid fuel firing installations in Morocco, where BERALMAR is the main supplier of this kind of technology.