• Ceramics Industry
• TREATISE ON DRYING AND FIRING AT BERALMAR

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 will be distributed gradually through the newsletter as of next September in the respective languages that the newsletter is available in. The section "Information for ceramists" will also be available on the website, a section which will begin to fill up with other technical content.

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.

• Corporate
• NEW BERALMAR EMPLOYEES

Fernando Herrera

In the last two newsletters (May and June), we informed you of a total of five new employees at BERALMAR, and now we have one more.

Fernando Herrera, 44, a technologist with a long career in the ceramics industry, and has joined as a commissioning technician.

We welcome him to organisation and wish him a quick integration into the BERALMAR team.

• BERALMAR HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

As is customary in southern Europe, BERALMAR's workforce will all have their annual leave during the month of August. For this reason, we 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 - 5 August) -Low activity: approximately 20% of the workforce.
• Weeks 32 and 33 (6 - 19 August) -Minimal activity: telephone assistance and urgent delivery of spare parts.
• Week 34 (20 - 26 August) -Low activity: approximately 20% of the workforce.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this decrease in activity may cause. From Monday, 27 August, BERALMAR will return to normal levels of activity.

• News and Accomplishments
• ORDER FOR 3 SETS OF HOT CLEAN AIR GENERATORS USING BIOMASS

BERALMAR has just received an order from Morocco for 3 sets of hot clean air generators that use biomass, each with a power of up to 2,000,000 Kcal/hour (2,326 kW). Each set is comprised of:

• Biomass feed hopper chute with disintegrator mill.
• PULS/2000 solid fuel combustion chamber.
• GB/2000 heat exchanger.

The biomass is removed from the hopper chute through a screw conveyor, passing through a hammermill which breaks it up into a particle size small enough to be pneumatically transported and injected into the combustion chamber, where combustion occurs before it reaches the bottom. The combustion chamber is coupled directly to the heat exchanger. This separation of functions (combustion in one machine and heat exchange in another), maximizes overall efficiency, reaching values of between 80 and 85%.

The 3 sets will be installed in 3 factories in Morocco, owned by the Salhi family: BRIQUETERIEMABROUKA, BRIQUETERIESONABRIQ and BRIQUETERIEMIDABRIQ. A few months ago, BERALMAR put an identical set into operation in BRIQUETERIEMIDABRIQ, and the level of customer satisfaction along with the savings from replacing all previous consumption of fuel oil, have convinced the Salhi family to continue the same path of replacing the remaining fuel oil generators of all their factories.

Another advantage of this set is the possibility of installing an fuel burner at the back of the heat exchanger, so that it can consume fuel oil at any time, in case of problems with the supply of biomass.

With these, in a few months there will be 8sets of equipment supplied to Morocco to replace fuel oil with biomass in the dryer and it is anticipated that these applications will continue expanding in Morocco, given that the main biomass used, olive pomace, has 40% the calorific value of fuel oil with 15% of the cost. Therefore the saving is very significant and amortization takes place within a few months.

• INSTALLATION OF FUEL-OIL/GAS HYBRID EQUIPMENT IN SERBIA

BERALMAR has just completed the commissioning of an installation of gas firing equipment combined with previously existing fuel oil injection units, resulting in hybrid units of gas and fuel injection for the IGMMLADOST tile factory in Leskovac, southern Serbia.

The project has come about as a result of the gas distribution network reaching the area, allowing the management of MLADOSTLESKOVAC to quickly seize the opportunity to request BERALMAR for:

• The conversion of existing fuel injection equipment into hybrid fuel-gas injection equipment.
• and the installation of high-speed preheating burners, with natural gas.

MLADOSTLESKOVAC did not want to forgo the availability of fuel oil, given the high quality with which they were able to fire 100,000 tiles per day with this fuel, and therefore opted for the adaptation of hybrid units, instead of removing fuel injectors from the kiln. The commissioning of gas equipment has obviously maintained the firing quality of the tiles, while facilitating management of the kiln, adding a range of possibilities for regulation, thanks to the high-speed burners.

The group MLADOST is an important BERALMAR customer, as they have entrusted us in the past with the installation of PROMATIC solid fuel firing equipment for their two brick factories and one we hope to continue collaborating with on many other projects in the future.