Reference Rohrdorfer Cement

Using digitalization to shape a sustainable future

Ensure maximum availability of the drive systems while keeping environmental impact low

The challenge

The cement industry is a tough business: Rock is quarried, crushed, burned, and ground with high-energy input until it becomes the building material that is needed in ever greater quantities everywhere. Companies need to decide if they either respond to the challenges of the industry with extremely high-energy input – with corresponding consequences for the environment and climate. Or choose a sustainable future – like ROHRDORFER cement, a pioneer in this field.

The cloud-based digital service SIDRIVE IQ* (now Inspire IQ) for asset and field data

The solution

There is no such thing as digital cement, but digitalization can help to produce it more efficiently and sustainably. ROHRDORFER always wanted to optimize its maintenance and, at the same time, have a better service for their medium voltage converters Innomotics GM150 (former SINAMICS* GM150). This is where Inspire IQ (former SIDRIVE IQ) comes in: Continuous predictive maintenance, the clever use of energy, and the technological expertise of the right partner. All in all, it means new perspectives for the future – and more time for making the right decisions.

A good example is the ventilation system that routes waste heat from the kiln to the power plant's heat exchanger. Here, SIDRIVE IQ (now Inspire IQ) monitors the electrical performance of the drive system to discover mechanical or electrical anomalies long before they cause actual problems. The advantage is obvious: no loss of production time, maintenance can be scheduled in planned downtime. And because the Inspire IQ experts can determine the actual cause, maintenance times are correspondingly shorter because troubleshooting and waiting for the right spare part are no longer necessary.

More about Inspire IQ

❞ How do you get the team to feel more at ease? When everyone knows that there is a lower risk of failure or that we have better availability, that's everything to us. And it will get even better in the future, as SIDRIVE IQ (now Inspire IQ) provides us with the data we need to trust every decision we make. ❞

Sustainability at ROHRDORFER cement

The heart of the cement plant: the rotary kiln

Anyone walking through the Rohrdorf plant cannot miss the center of all affairs – the rotary kiln. In it, ground limestone and clay are processed in temperatures of 1,000 °C to slowly become clinker. To keep it running continuously, day-in, day-out is the most important task in the company. Not only because there would be no product to sell, but also because the waste heat from the oven provides around a third of the plants power requirement.

Using waste heat for sustainable operation

One of ROHRDORFER’s explicit goals is to ensure that the company is preserved for future generations. That is why the company is investing in reliable technology for the coming decades – with partners who will continue to support them in the future – with integrated solutions, such as a waste heat power plant, competitive technologies, and convincing service offerings. So that employees can fully concentrate on their core business, today and tomorrow.

Sustainability stands and falls with the equipment

SIDRIVE IQ (now Inspire IQ) detects anomalies long before they become a problem. This not only prevents failures of critical technologies, but also gives ROHRDORFER flexibility and security in deciding what needs to be serviced when, as well as which redundancy system needs to be switched on and when a replacement investment needs to be made. All of this in the context of increased productivity due to less downtime.

Innomotics (former Siemens* Large Drives) generator in operation for over 10 years without failures for efficient power generation and CO₂ savings

200,000,000 kWh of own electricity – this is the total amount of environmentally friendly electricity generated by the Innomotics (former Siemens Large Drives) generator per year.

The unique heat recovery plant has been in operation for 10 years and is the only plant of its kind in Europe in a cement plant whose waste heat is converted into electrical energy.

The oven in the cement plant is operated at a temperature of up to 1400 °C. In this extremely innovative process, the outstanding heat generates steam, which is then fed into a steam turbine, where the generator is operated to generate energy. The generator achieves an output of up to 7.5 MW/hour and covers approx. 14-20% of the overall power consumption at the cement plant.

The output of around 200 gigawatt hours (GWh) generated in a year is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 70,000 single-family homes. At the same time, the effect on CO₂ savings is 105,000 metric tons.

❞ In terms of sustainability, we have installed a waste heat recovery power plant in the cement plant. It has a huge generation capacity, which covers 30% of our electricity needs. ❞

Frank Stocker, Head of electrical engineering at ROHRDORFER cement

Shaping a sustainable and digital future – today!

The advantages

At ROHRDORFER, trust is just as important as the latest technologies. The ideal situation is when both come together: increasing networking, digitalization, reliable components, and a partner who accompanies the path with the right technologies, who can provide important orientation and point out prospects, who reliably eliminates faults already after 30 minutes. A partner who, with Inspire IQ (former SIDRIVE IQ), has deep insights into the technology and at the same time ensures the best possible protection of the data and networks externally: Innomotics (former Siemens Large Drives).