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CEMENT AMERICAS • Fall 2014 • www.cementamericas.com FEATURE MCINNIS CEMENT 10 By Josephine Smith McInnis Cement Update THE AMBITIOUS PORT-DANIEL-GASCONS PROJECT REMAINS ON TRACK DESPITE CONTROVERSY. A s reported in Cement Americas' January 2014 feature, "McInnis Cement Thinks Big," McInnis Cement announced financing and receipt of final permits to spur 2014-2016 con- struction of a 2 million-2.5 million tpy plant and marine terminal in Port- Daniel-Gascons, Quebec, Canada. Anchoring an export-driven business model, the marine terminal will be equipped to load barges – bound for Great Lakes and Northeast U.S. mar- kets – at rates up to 2,000 tph. With deep-water load out, the plant will be able to deliver material to Atlantic coast points south or St. Lawrence Seaway points west in two to three sailing days. McInnis Cement recently acquired land adjacent to the lime- stone-rich, 850-acre site it already owns to provide substantial backup reserves and guarantee the mill's long-term viability. Recently, the company announced that the financial structure of the plant was completed. National Bank of Canada confirmed the availability of a $360 million loan for the project. The announcement capped financing for the operation, led by a $500 mil- lion commitment from private and public investors, and $250 million commercial loan from province agency Investissement Québec. "We are pleased that the project can be realized without any subsidy; we are also very proud to be able to complete, more than 30 years after it was imag- ined by local entrepreneurs, this vision- ary, ambitious and modern cement plant at the cutting edge of technology," stated Christian Gagnon, CEO of McIn- nis Cement. "Construction has begun and the project is well under way. More- over, the ecological footprint of this flag- ship project for the cement industry in Canada and across the world will be one of the lowest in the industry." FUEL FIX The cement plant will reportedly use up to 40 percent less fuel per ton of cement than traditional cement plants (due to higher use of hydro- electric power) reducing emissions of greenhouse gas. It will be equipped with all the latest technology for im- proved environmental performance, including the latest generation bag filters throughout the plant for im- proved efficiency. The plant will also utilize maritime transportation for fuel, further reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the project. Additionally, the facility will comply with the U.S. standards set out in the National Emission Standards for Haz- ardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP 2015), which are more stringent than those presently applied in Quebec. The Port-Daniel cement plant will be the only one in Canada to comply with the NESHAP 2015 standards. The project will use petroleum coke as fuel, an oil refinery residue with a high heating value. The cement plant represents one of the more ecological ways of putting this residue to good use. Its kilns that operate at very high temperatures enable its usage while reducing atmospheric emis- sions through a succession of high performing filtration stages of the combustion gases. "Over the coming years, we intend to reduce even further the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by partly replac- ing the petroleum coke with biomass, available in the Gaspé region. This par- tial conversion to biomass is at the very heart of the concept of this new cement plant," added Gagnon.