Cement plant case studies and insights

India's cement industry is on a strong growth path, driven by infrastructure projects and urban housing demand, with the market expected to grow at over 10% CAGR through 2030. Over the next five years, the sector will reshape the nation by powering mega-corridors, smart cities, and expanding urban centers, while adopting green cement and alternative fuels and waste-heat recovery systems to cut emissions. The cement manufacturing sector faces mounting pressure from rising demand for high-quality cement products and increasingly stringent environmental regulations. To remain competitive, organizations must enhance productivity, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce operational costs, all without compromising product quality. These challenges are further intensified by skills shortages, stricter safety requirements, and the need to manage more complex and demanding operating conditions.

In 2023, the JK Cement plant in Nimbahera, Rajasthan (India) was looking for a solution to extend the wear life of its dip tube. Operating with 15% alternative fuel substitution in a chemically aggressive environment, previous solutions had worn quickly, creating risk that the plant could no longer tolerate. They opted to replace the failing dip tube with a Cast Central Pipe (CCP) from Fuller – a solution that has proved highly successful.

As process models drift from reality, advanced process control systems promise more than they can sustain in practice. By closing critical data gaps, self-adaptive control and AI-based soft sensors are reshaping that equation. Dinesh Sampath, Global Product Manager – Optimization, Fuller Technologies, explains.

As the cement rolls out to customers, Fuller Technologies’ Peter Juul Andersen, Steven Miller and Rasmus Franklin Momme describe CBI Ghana’s record-breaking new calcined clay plant.

Rasmus Franklin Momme - Global Chief Process Engineer, Morten Østergaard - Project Director, and Steven Miller - Global Product Manager, Fuller Technologies, describe the first-of-a-kind installation of the company’s calcined clay technology at Vicat's Xeuilley cement plant in France. This article first appeared in the April 2026 issue of World Cement.

Kiranmai Sanagavarapu, Fuller Technologies Denmark A/S, explores the practical challenges of reducing clinker content, with a focus on grinding system design and variability management. This article first appeared in the April 2026 issue of International Cement Review.

In this exclusive interview with Indian Cement Review, Manoj Taneja, Head of India at Fuller Technologies, explains why solving cement’s biggest challenges demands an integrated response.

Imubit’s advanced AI-powered soft sensors will complement Fuller’s industry-leading ECS/ProcessExpert® (PXP) advanced process control system, delivering enhanced real-time optimisation

Allentown, PA – 3 February 2026 – A familiar name from Lehigh Valley’s industrial heritage is returning to its American roots. Following its acquisition last year by private equity firm Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, Fuller Technologies is forging a proudly independent path, relocating its Headquarters to Allentown, PA and building on its century-long history in what was once heralded as the “cement capital of the world”. Since its acquisition, Fuller has reorganized its holdings and will retain its extensive global footprint, including its ongoing commitment to strategic locations in India and Denmark, where it recently opened new office locations, while establishing its Headquarters in Allentown, PA.

Empirical testing helps engineers understand how bulk materials really behave in pneumatic conveying systems - reducing uncertainty, improving reliability, and supporting better design decisions.

Vicat expressed complete satisfaction of a supply and install project at La Grave de Peille, France. After several months of operation, the new installation resulted in doubling the service life of the nose ring, energy savings and an increased substitution capacity.

Shree Cement, one of India’s largest cement producers, hit a new milestone – and broke a world record – in December 2023 when it started up the new Nawalgarh plant in Rajasthan. The plant boasts both India’s largest OK® Mill and the world’s largest pyro line – rated at 11,500 tpd but achieving at more than 13,500 tpd – putting Shree Cement on track to exceed their target of 80 million tpa cement capacity in India by 2028.

Following Fuller Technology’s acquisition by Pacific Avenue Capital Partners, Dennis J. Cassidy Jr. has been appointed our new CEO. We sat down with Dennis to learn more about him, his priorities, and his vision for Fuller going forward.

Fuller Technologies (previously FLSmidth Cement) and Dragon Cement tell the story of how an existing self-discharging barge was upgraded with a Fuller-Kinyon® N Pump to significantly increase efficiency and simplicity.

Fuller Technology’s QCX software suite has pioneered cement laboratory automation and chemical quality optimization for more than five decades – and continues to do so. This latest update offers several powerful new features for data acquisition and process visualization, alongside the usual continuous improvements and updates to the latest standards. The release also includes our new QCX Web companion app.

In cement, mining, and minerals processing operations, every unplanned stoppage equals lost production and reduced profitability. Yet identifying what caused a stoppage remains frustratingly complex. A single motor failure can trigger cascading interlocks and alarm floods, burying the root cause under layers of secondary events. Operators and maintenance teams waste valuable time tracing event chains when they should be solving problems. Until now.

FLSmidth Cement is now wholly owned by an affiliate of Pacific Avenue Capital Partners. To mark this new chapter, the company will rebrand to Fuller® Technologies.

In December 2023, Shree Cement’s newest cement plant began operations in Nawalgarh, Rajasthan. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the plant is home to the world’s largest pyro system, producing more than 13 500 tpd of clinker against performance guarantees of 11 500 tpd. This historic performance would not be possible without the Cross-Bar® Cooler from Fuller, which maintains impressive productivity and efficiency while also contributing to Shree Cement’s sustainability goals through waste heat recovery that amounts to around 8 MW of power generation.

As the cement industry evolves to meet environmental challenges, one trend is clear: more variable feedstock requires more precise processes. In the pyro process, where alternative fuels play an increasingly important role in lowering carbon emissions, it is the role of materials handling solutions like the PFISTER® Rotor Weighfeeder to ensure precise and stable dosing of both alternative and fossil fuels to avoid volatility in the kiln and maintain consistent clinker quality.

The CircFuel research project is investigating whether a usable fuel oil can be produced from RDF as a product of the Fuller FUELFLEX® Pyrolyzer.

Outdated control systems can significantly slow down operations, drive up costs, and lead to unexpected shutdowns. This was exactly the challenge facing SPCC (Southern Province Cement Company) Bisha's water treatment plant. Their aging automation system had become increasingly difficult to maintain, plagued by obsolete components and dwindling technical support. The urgent need for a reliable, fast upgrade became undeniable.

In 2018, we delivered a modern ECS/ControlCenter™ automation solution to upgrade a manually operated system at Messebo Cement in Ethiopia. However, civil unrest delayed system commissioning, putting the project on hold until the plant contacted us again in 2024.

An affiliate of Pacific Avenue Capital Partners (“Pacific Avenue”), a global private equity firm with offices in Los Angeles, USA, and Paris, France, has signed an agreement to purchase FLSmidth Cement.

In Senegal’s competitive cement market, CDS Kirene Cement needed a breakthrough. Their solution came through a strategic partnership with Chinese EPC Supplier and Fuller to deploy ECS/ControlCenter — the most advanced automation platform in cement manufacturing. The result is a fully unified, cyber-secure production facility that sets a new benchmark for efficiency, scalability, and innovation.

In today’s fast-evolving industrial landscape, legacy systems can become a bottleneck to efficiency and reliability. This was the case for Ramco Cement’s grinding unit at Mathodu, where aging automation technology posed increasing risks to productivity and operational continuity.

We are proud to share a testimonial from Chinfon Cement regarding their positive experience ECS/ProcessExpert 9 advanced process control software.

The Karbala Cement plant in Iraq faced operational challenges due to an outdated control system that resulted in frequent unplanned shutdowns and a dependence on specialised technicians. Addressing these issues, the plant partnered with Fuller to implement our ECS/ControlCenter™ v9, automation platform, improving reliability and efficiency, eliminating unplanned downtime, fortifying the plant's security, and laying the foundation for sustainable growth.

The world is currently experiencing the fourth industrial revolution – or Industry 4.0. This is an era of digital transformation characterised by the introduction of AI and machine learning, connectivity (the Internet of Things or IoT), and big data – all of which are powered by cloud computing. To put it another way, there is much more computing power and much more storage. And, combined together, this is giving us data analytics at a whole new level. These are exciting times and we see examples in nearly all facets of our lives.

Jacob Brinch Nielsen, Vice President of Professional Services, Fuller, brings together recommendations from experts across the flow sheet to demonstrate the role of upgrades in optimising the cement manufacturing process.