“Energy consumption is a key element for future investments and technologies as the most strategic aspect in terms of carbon management and sustainability strategy. As strategic management plans such as reduction roadmap, corporate carbon footprint, product carbon footprint to be prepared by companies are directly limited by energy limits, it is foreseen that substitution will be realized with new and efficient technologies in the upcoming period.”
Volkan CEBECİ/ Genel Müdür Yardımcısı Minerva Mühendislik
Can you tell us about the general organization and fields of activity of Minerva Engineering which renders services in almost every field of the industry with custom engineering solutions?
Minerva Engineering is an organization developed to reflect and implement the harmony of engineering with the latest technologies in the field of application by blending scientific studies with industrial productivity. Our aim is to provide a positive contribution and create economic benefit in the fields of minimization of natural resources and energy consumption needed by the industry and society based on our scientific studies. As a result; engineering studies that will create energy efficiency as a preventative (substitution) factor for the sources that generate CO emissions under the main heading of “reduction” in parallel with the objectives of Paris ClimateAgreement, to which also Turkey is a signatory are among our principal fields of activity.
Minerva Engineering is an R&D company headquartered in Ankara. Fine grinding tests are carried out in our pilot scale facility operating under our R&D center laboratory in order to address the industrial needs such as reduction of specific energy in cement grinding circuits, determination of optimal engineering parameters, increase of capacity, reduction of carbon footprint, increase of cement product-quality. Examination and evaluation operations are also carried out by our analysis laboratory located in our R&D center.
Our engineering activities based on conservation of energy and environment, our social and industrial practices feature an extensive scope from the cement sector to all branches of heavy industry; from the field of education to technology development.
One of the main strengths of our company is R&D studies. What are the attributes of your R&D team? For which fields do you produce custom R&D solutions the most?
We are carrying out studies at an academic level with our teammates who have national and international experience in the fields of environmentally friendly, low energy consumption grinding technology, industrial raw materials and industrial plants aimed at low carbon generation in terms of R&D. We are satisfying the requirements of our customers through analysis, design and turnkey applications with our highly qualified technical staff by making use of our grindin andclassification facility at pilot scale and the analysis laboratory within our R&D center. Field surveys, sampling and measurement services are carried out and engineering designs are producedi ourcentrallaboratories in accordance with the requested objectives in order to meet customer-specific demands. We can offer turnkey (EPC) solutions featuring short time integration, with performance guarantee by producing designs that are deemed appropriate.
We are carrying out studies on maximizing capacity, minimizing energy consumption, desired product size distribution and product quality increase in gray cement, white cement and high strength cement plants using our custom R&D solutions. What makes us the strongest in terms of our solution proposals is that we can prepare an industrial design with a 1:1 transfer rate thanks to our pilot scale facility. We are carrying out operations also in other sectors that require dry grinding processes such as chemicals industry, paint industry and mining, as well as the cement sector.
What are the solutions and services that you exclusively offer to the cement industry?
As you know; strategic carbon management with low energy consumption needs to be planned in the cement sector as well as in any other sector within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement. Preparing a “reduction roadmap” is mandatory in accordance with the carbon management plan, which is the main topic of the sustainability strategy to be established our companies. The R&D studies we carry out as Minerva Engineering serve as a stakeholder right at this point in terms of both in satisfying the objectives of the agreement and in eliminating the obligations imposed on the sector. Prevention of energy consumption through substitution activities stand out as the first and the most important measure among the options for reducing carbon emission. For this purpose, we provide services in the cement sector in accordance with the purpose of producing products by using less energy. We have achieved significant success in terms of reducing unit energy consumption with our Minerva Pamir application if we take a look at our studies. We are already implementing practices to reduce energy consumption per ton so that our industrialists can create low-level carbon production cards in order to protect them against the disadvantages of the carbon border tax which will become effective in 2026. The carbon border tax will impose a burden on our exporters in the range of Euro 50 to Euro 90 depending on the CO2 emission data per ton of cement product.
The companies we serve for will attain mid- and long-term benefits in terms of regulatory risks, environmental risks, risk management, reputation and brand management, cost minimization, differentiation in the market, financial risks (green agreement) in return for reducing the emission generated per product. For instance, the financial system that a plant with a high carbon footprint refers when it is in financial needs will respond in line with that company’s carbon footprint and strategic carbon management plans. For these reasons, investments that reduce energy use by employing new technology like we do will come to the forefront.
These studies cover the revisions on the existing cement plants, as well as the establishment of a turnkey cement plant (EPC). Our added value multiplier effect in the cement sector is increasing as this technical intervention also provides improvement in product-quality.
You save energy while increasing efficiency with your Minerva Pamir application which can carry out ultra-fine dry grinding. Can you tell us about the details of this application?
Horizontal dry bead mill technology named Minerva Pamir can be used wherever fine grinding is required. It is possible to develop different circuit designs to maximize the energy efficiency of the grinding circuit without compromising the cement quality. Pamir mill is a type of mill in which the material fed is introduced through the grinding chamber pneumatically. Fine grained partical is obtained by moving the bead balls (2-8 mm) in the mill with agitators. The most efficient parameters are determined by optimizing the amount of energy released (stress energy, SE) and the number of collisions (stress number, SN) in each collision occurring inside the mill and maximal benefit is achieved through use of minimum energy. Our studies at pilot scale our facility- and tailor made, targetoriented solutions bring out the best choice for energy savings by conducting these completely different parameters like a maestro.
The right use of energy resources and reducing the carbon footprint is one of the main agenda items in all sectors engaged in industrial production in recent years. Can you tell us about your work in this field briefly?
As a large amount of energy is consumed for size reduction and the determined goal-driven studies are focused on the field of energy, the focus is on improving the technologies used in this field and adapting the new technologies to the existing system. It has been observed in our studies that 20% or further energy savings are possible under adequate production conditions in the process of developing dry horizontal bead mill technology in line with this purpose and applying it to the industry. We are continuing our engineering studies in line with this by making use of the data we have obtained as a result of the evaluation of a number of laboratory and pilot-scale studies. First of all, Netzsch Pamir Mill application, which we have proved at the Bursa Cement Plant, has shown how effectively we can reduce energy consumption. Our application will be commissioned in the near future in a high-strength cement line of one of our leading companies operating in the cement sector. Results of our studies show that our carbon based emission output is reduced when the activity data (kWh/t) used in carbon emission calculation, that is, energy consumption per ton of product is reduced.
CO2 = Emission = Activity data (kWh/t) x Emission factor (0.459* tons of CO2e/kWh)
*2019 Turkey CO2 emission coefficient
Which technologies will become prominent in the upcoming period in terms of the efficient use of energy resources and the establishment of a more sustainable structure in the future in your opinion?
Energy consumption is a key element for future investments and technologies as the most crucial aspect in terms of carbon management and sustainability strategy. As strategic management plans such as reduction roadmap, corporate carbon footprint, product carbon footprint to be prepared by companies are directly limited by energy limits, it is foreseen that substitution will be realized with new and efficient technologies in the upcoming period.
Also, my opinion for the future is that energy types to be obtained without consuming solid fuels, blue hydrogen production and minimum water/carbon footprint based raw material production methods will become prominent and a modernization which covers all industrial branches will be of question. Not only the efficient use of energy resources, but also the water resources shall be considered together in a sustainable structure. I consider that waterfree processes (raw material production, enrichment processes, etc.) which will be integrated into this technology will become important in the future as no water is used, as well as the energy consumption is reduced by dry grinding technologies.
What will be the custom solutions and applications that you will offer in the upcoming years as a company?
We anticipate that our energy consumption minimization, capacity maximization and product-quality maximization practices will increasingly remain within the scope of our activities in the upcoming years. Besides that, we will offer new custom solutions by transforming our knowhow we have gained through our R&D activities into industrial practices in the future. We are not planning to disclose the innovative solutions we develop for a while if you excuse us. In conclusion, our main goal is to realize all of our achievements for the benefit of the industry and humanity and to make them available for everyone.
What are Your International Activities? Are there any custom applications and solutions that you export from Turkey to abroad?
We also carry out all custom applications and solutions referred in our interview with various companies abroad. These studies we carry out, which are under the testing phase cover more than one country. Being headquartered in Turkey, we continue to carry out activities in these fields, which we are pioneering all over the world.
Minerva Engineering is also an associate partner of the DIGIRESCUEME project, which is already being funded by the European Union’s strategic partnerships call of action. As Minerva Engineering, we will go on providing support for increasing and disseminating the impact of the results of the action that contribute to industrial training and occupational safety.