Modernisation

increases capacity
and runtime

Case: Tororo Cement, Uganda

Tororo Cement approached FLSmidth to help revive its old plant. The result is a
stable production of more than 1000 tpd and reduced energy consumption.
2

Standard equipment,
non-standard solution

FLSmidth supplied
standard equipment
for this project,
put together in a
non-standard way
to optimally meet
Tororo Cement’s
requirements. FLSmidth collaborated closely with
Tororo Cement’s plant manager to
develop the upgrade
 3

The background
As one of only two cement plants in Uganda, Tororo Cement
plays a vital role in a volatile market. Significant infrastructure
investment in the country has been fuelling the need for
cement and producers are expecting demand to exceed the
2Mt mark in the near future.
The Tororo Cement plant was purchased second-hand from
Germany and dates back to 1948. The plant was originally
situated at 0 MSL but it is installed in Uganda at 1300 MSL.
This meant that the fans have not worked efficiently and
average output has been much less than the rated production
level. In addition, the limestone in Germany was very soft
but in Tororo it is carbonatite, the hardest form of limestone,
so the raw mill was also operating at 50% capacity.
The objective
Tororo Cement wanted to achieve stable, uninterrupted
operation and increase the capacity of the existing plant,
with minimum disruption.
for the high voltage ABB variable frequency drives supplied
by FLSmidth, along with the filter bags for the process stacks.
Challenges
The team encountered a few challenges and the installation
took longer than estimated. Since it was an old mill, it was
difficult to retrieve the correct data for the new equipment,
which meant it had to be slightly modified after installation.
The old plant was also in poor condition and finding experi-
enced local contractors to fabricate and erect the infrastruc-
tures, such as heavy cranes, was a big challenge. Sometimes,
even simple bolts are not available in Uganda and everything
had to be imported. There were delays in deliveries because
everything had to be transported by road from Kenya (a journey
of around 1200 km).
The weather in Uganda was also a hindrance, with the rain
meaning that erection work at heights regularly had to be
stopped.

Defining the project “The key to this project was to

Following a process study, it was decided that the best way find the bottlenecks at the plant
to revive the plant to its rated capacity was by upgrading the and pinpoint where the customer
raw mill and replacing all the major process fans. This involved
could gain the most benefit for
exchanging the mill separator along with the raw mill fan,
kiln ID fan, main filter fan and cooler filter fan. Minimising
the least amount of investment.”
downtime was an important consideration in this project.
Frank L. Mortensen,
Project Sales Manager, FLSmidth
The solution
Collaborating closely with Tororo Cement’s plant manager
was crucial and the implemented solution is highly influenced
by some of the plant manager’s ideas. The raw mill upgrade
included:
- 1 SEPAX® separator
- Main process fans
- Engineering of new ducting
- Various transport equipment

To minimise downtime, FLSmidth installed as much equipment

as possible prior to shut down. The engineering of the ducting
was adapted to the site conditions and the team came up
with creative solutions to route the ducts, taking into account
the plant’s limited space.

As well as the main raw mill upgrade, there was additional

modernisation including the kiln inlet-outlet seals, the
hydraulic thrust device, and replacing the damaged kiln shell
under FLSmidth supervision with an FLSmidth® nose ring. An
FLSmidth® Pfister® coal dust firing system was also installed
along with a kiln viewing camera, an XRF/ XRD analyser, a
PXP Process Expert™ System and a Blend Expert™ system.

Tororo Cement also purchased services from FLSmidth for the

maintenance of the slide shoe bearings of the Unidan mill and

The raw mill upgrade included new ducting

Results
Production capacity at Tororo has increased as planned.
Before the upgrade the production was an unstable maximum
of 700 tpd. Following the upgrade, production has been
stable at 1000+ tpd. Furthermore, the plant has set a new
record in continuous running and expects to gain a return
on its investment within 1 year.

An additional benefit is that the new installations are future-

proof, meaning that Tororo Cement can handle any increase
in production in the future.

“FLSmidth brings in solutions

that always display a win – win
situation. The response to any
correspondence is very quick…
and the experts working on-site
are also very flexible and ready
to work at any time.”
Nilesh Modha,
Plant Manager, Tororo Cement

New SEPAX® separator

at Tororo Cement plant

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