Ceramics Industry
THE WORLD'S MOST POPULATED CITIES IN 2100

Corporate
BERALMAR AT THE EUROSYMPOSIUM IN MEISSEN (GERMANY)

News and Accomplishments
INCREASE IN SALES OF SOLID-FUEL HEAT GENERATORS

With all the provisions that any forecast implies, and more so such a long-term one, the Global Cities Institute of the University of Toronto (Canada) has published a study on the world population’s urbanization process and the consequent growth of the world’s metropolitan areas.

Extrapolating current data to 2100, the GCI predicts that the 20 most populated metropolitan areas in the world will have populations of between 36 and 90 million inhabitants, and most of them will be in Africa (13). The rest will all be in Asia, with no city in the Americas or Europe in the top 20.

Location of the 20 most populated metropolitan areas in the world in 2100

This is the list of the 20 most populated cities in the world forecast for 2100 according to GCI, some of them with growth rates of over 4,000% in 80 years’ time:

Something to bear in mind for anyone who is in some way related to the construction sector. The future will reveal if these forecasts more or less match reality, but based on this trend we can be sure of one thing: the volume of construction activity resulting from an urban population growth of the size reflected in this trend tells us that much of the future will be written in Africa and Asia.

On 3 and 4 September, the 24th Eurosymposium took place in Meissen (Germany), organized by the KERAMIK INSTITUT of the same city.

Meissen, located a few kilometres from Dresden, is a city with a long ceramics tradition especially in the production of high quality porcelain dating back to the High Middle Ages. Fruit of this rich history is the existence of the KERAMIK INSTITUT, organizer of the event, which invited BERALMAR to give a presentation on available technologies for the production of biomass with no CO₂ emissions.

The director of the Keramik Institut, Dr Jens Petzold, introducing the presentation by BERALMAR.

Miquel Moix from BERALMAR gave a presentation on the use of biomass combustion equipment in drying and firing processes to significantly reduce the total level of emissions as part of the current legislative framework in the EU, according to which biomass consumption is considered neutral in terms of CO₂ emissions.

We must not forget that in the EU, the ceramics industry, among others, will have to reduce CO₂ emissions by 32% progressively until the year 2025 with respect to 2005 levels, a target which cannot easily be achieved simply by optimizing energy efficiency.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the KERAMIK INSTITUT of Meissen for the invitation and hope that it was of interest to the attendees.

BERALMAR is registering this year a significant increase in orders for solid-fuel heat generators.

The heat generators built this year, both combustion chambers and heat exchangers, are both for use with biomass and micronized petcoke, and not only for the ceramics industry but for others, especially agriculture.

Special mention must go to two 18,000,000 Kcal/h (21,000 kWh) combustion chambers, which are the largest ever designed by BERALMAR, and which are used for generating hot air to dry alfalfa prior to storage.

The reasons for the growing interest in these types of solutions are varied, but one of them is undoubtedly the pressure to consume renewable energy instead of fossil fuels.