Just as Lehigh Cement Co. is seeking county permission to permanently store biosolids as an alternative fuel at the Union Bridge cement plant, a company official announced Lehigh is also looking into using trash as a fuel source.
Ed Morton, corporate alternate fuels and materials manager with Lehigh’s parent company, Heidelberg Cement, told the Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council Tuesday that the North American cement industry has started research within the past six months on using landfill waste as an alternative fuel source for cement kilns, which traditionally rely on coal.
A solid waste-disposal company in Medina, Ohio, began exploring mixtures of various kinds of waste, such as construction debris, tires and plastic, in different ratios to obtain desired heat and moisture values that could be used as a fuel, Morton said.