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The 38th Conference of HISPALYT, the Spanish Association of Brick and Tile Manufacturers, will take place from 28th to 30th May, with the prominent participation of BERALMAR.

The Conference will begin on the 28th with the 3rd Hispalyt "Cerámica para Construir" Golf Tournament at the PGA Golf de Catalunya. Sponsored by BERALMAR and the Catalonian Brick Manufacturers Assocation, this third edition is the consolidation of the Golf Tournament that has been a part of all recent HISPALYT conferences.

The main event of the Conference, which will begin with the Association General Meeting, is programmed for the 29th. The agenda consists mostly of an analysis of the state of the industry and the election of the new president of HISPALYT. The programme for the day will include a lecture given by Santi Amposta, of BERALMAR's R&D department, on the use of biogas in the ceramics industry, including a visit to Cerámica Pierola, which has 3 kilns operating with BERALMAR dual gas/biogas burners. Biogas is also used in heat generators in this plant. BERALMAR's first experience with biogas in the Cerámica Pierola was in 2001, which makes BERALMAR a pioneer within the ceramics industry in these applications.

Finally, on the 30th, there will be a cultural visit to Barcelona and a farewell lunch.

BERALMAR took part last March in the BATIMATEC 2009 fair in Algiers (Algeria).

This was the 12th time BERALMAR took part in the foremost construction fair in Algeria, a market which BERALMAR knows well thanks to the various projects it has carried out and the equipment it has supplied there.

As always, this new edition of BATIMATEC served to reunite friends and clients, as well as to discuss future projects.

BERALMAR has commissioned a new solid-fuel firing facility in the MLADOST TMP ceramics plant in Prokuplje (Serbia).

It is a PROMATIC system, which dries and micronises fuel at <100 microns and transports and injects it pneumatically into the kiln's firing area. The preheating area uses fuel oil gasifiers.

The fuel used is petcoke, though the facility also allows for the future use of high quality coal of over 6000 kcal/kg and less than 10% ash.

The MLADOST TPM PROMATIC facility was designed to produce 600 tonnes/day.

BERALMAR has so far installed solid-fuel firing facilities (PROMATIC and MICROMATIC systems) in more than 200 tunnel kilns over the last 26 years and in 90 kilns since 2000 alone, which makes us the industry specialists in this field.

BERALMAR has been commisioned to build a drier and a kiln for a new ceramic plant in Nador (Morocco). The new factory, to be called SALAMBRIQ, will have a production capacity of 500 tonnes/day of hollow bricks.

The drier will be the MESTRAL model. This is a semi-continuous type of drier with moving-shelf transport. The drier consists of 6 drying lines, fitted with fixed conical recirculation fans. The whole facility will be managed using a MICROSEC automatic control.

The kiln will be a completely sealed PRESTHERMIC model, with which BERALMAR has always obtained exceptionally good consumption figures. The kiln will be 134.85 metres long with a usable inside width of 4.5 metres. Micronised petcoke will be the kiln's main source of energy since it will include a MICROMATIC system and fuel oil gas jets for preheating. All of the kiln's components will be managed by a MICROBER automatic controller.

As usual, BERALMAR's wide range of engineering solutions and firing and drying process equipment is unlimited in its ability to provide the most suitable installation for each aspect of the project, depending only on the clay available, the materials to be manufactured and the fuel available.

This project is a further demonstration of confidence in BERALMAR on the part of the client, who also manages the DIMABRIQ ceramics plant for which BERALMAR has already supplied a tunnel kiln and various equipment.