Cement plants

Cement industry:
Skyscrapers, bridges, roads and dams are all made of concrete, the world’s most widely used building material. Cement is its key ingredient so it is not a big surprise that cement factories make up one of the world's biggest industries. Cement is made by heating limestone with small quantities of other materials (such as clay) to 1450°C in a kiln. The resulting hard substance, called ‘clinker’, is then ground with a small amount of gypsum into a powder to make ‘Ordinary Portland Cement’, the most commonly used type of cement (often referred to as OPC). Concrete is the second most used product on the planet, after water, and almost half of it is produced in China. Cement is also one of the most polluting industries in the world. They produce more than 5% of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions.

Biggest cement plants
Emerging on nearly 3,900 acres near the village of Denby in Missouri in the United States, the new Holcim ( The biggest cement producing company in the world ) facility will be the largest cement plant in the world when it opens in 2009. When fully operational, it will produce approximately four million metric tons of cement annually. The landscape leading to the site is fairly unremarkable until you travel further and crest the hill. From there, 13 enormous behemoth silos appear in the valley below. In the pictures below you can see the construction site of this new cement plant which is currently still under construction:









The current largest cement plant in the United States in operation is the TXI cement plant in Midlothian in Texas (birdview). A recent added cement kiln has increased the capacity at TXI's Midlothian plant from 1.3 to 2.8 million tons per year, making it the biggest in the United States:



This cement plant in Alpena in Michigan in the United States also belongs to the biggest in the United States and the world. Because of Alpena's location in the midst of immense limestone deposits, the Huron Portland Cement Company, founded at Detroit in 1907, chose this site for its plant:

The largest cement plant in Europe is found in the city of Hereke in Turkey. Nowadays the landscape of this town is dominated by this enormous cement factory. Turkey is also one of the biggest cement producers in Europe and the Marmara region, where the Nuh Cement Plant is located, accounts for around 30 percent of the country's production:

Second in Europe is this Cement factory near Voloce in Greece from the cement producer Heracless:

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Wastewater treatment plants

Water waste treatment:
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff (effluents) and domestic. It includes physical, chemical and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants. Its objective is to produce a waste stream (or treated effluent) and a solid waste or sludge suitable for discharge or reuse back into the environment. This material is often inadvertently contaminated with many toxic organic and inorganic compounds.

Waste water treatment plants:
With a population exceeding 15 million, Cairo is the largest metropolitan area on the African continent. The continued expansion of this great city has called for infrastructure investment on a massive scale. The Gabal el Asfar wastewater treatment facility is just that. When the final phase is completed, it will be the largest wastewater treatment plant in the world, with a capacity of 3 million m3/d. The world second biggest is located in Shanghai, China. Home to more than 12 million inhabitants, Shanghai is the largest city in China. The Bailonggang plant in Shanghai's southern suburbs, close to the estuary of the Yangtze River, became operational in 1999 and currently has a daily processing capacity of 2 million cubic m, about one-third of the total amount of wastewater treated in the city every day.

The Blue Plains water treatment plant in Washington D.C claims to be the thrid largest wastewater Treatment Plant in the world (birdview). Blue Plains treats an average of 370 million gallons of wastewater a day from all of DC and parts of MD and VA. Also, if you look at the north end of the pier you will see darker water. That is the discharge from the plant. The Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago was the biggest waste water plant in the world for a long time (birdview), and is still among the world largests. The Plant serves 2.38 million people in a 260 square mile area including the central part of Chicago and 43 suburban communities. The Plant has a design capacity of 1,200 million gallons per day.

Another big water treatment plant is the Deer Island Waste Water Treatment Plant (also known as Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant) run and operated by The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. It is located on Deer Island one of the Boston Harbor Islands in Boston Harbor. Deer Island is the third largest sewage treatment plant in the United States:


Sludge removed from the waste is sent to an array of 150-foot-tall egg-shaped sludge digesters, which are major harbour landmarks:




The Hyperion Treatment Plant in Los Angeles is one of the oldest and largest wastewater treatment plants of the United States. (birdview). The plant has been operating since 1894. Europe’s biggest water treatment plant is situated in Athens Bay, Greece on the Psyttalia island. The Psyttalia Wastewater Treatment Plant treats daily with 750.000 m3 of sewage and has a nominal daily capacity of 1.000.000 m3:

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