Today, we completed our second round of site visits! We visited Vassiliko Cement Works in Mari and Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute in Larnaca. Our morning was spent at Vassiliko Cement Works. The session started with a presentation from a chemical engineer from Vassiliko and was followed by supply chain executives from VTTV, an affiliate of Vassiliko that has offices on Vassiliko’s impressive campus. Vassiliko Cement Works was founded in 1963 and began its production of clinker and cement in 1967. It has 233 employees, including mechanics, engineers, and businesspeople. It also employs 350 contractors. As the largest production unit in Europe, Vassiliko makes cement for all of Cyprus and exports clinker to the Middle East and the European Union. Interestingly, our speaker told us that concrete is the second most consumed material in the world. Vassiliko’s production line is very vertically integrated.
The creation of their products starts with raw materials that are crushed and blended in a silo that has a capacity of 60,000 tons. The most important raw materials for this process come from Vassiliko’s own mines. They have two limestone mines, two clay mines, and one gypsum mine. Next, the raw materials are grinded and sent to one of five silos. The silos pre-heat from 90 degrees celsius to 900 degrees celsius. The materials are burned in a main burner and made into clinker. Vassiliko has a clinker storage area as well as three cement mills. They can make 2.4 million tons of product per year. One of the most fascinating components of Vassiliko’s supply chain was its port along the coast of Cyprus. The port, which was founded in 1983, serves – on average – 300 ships per year. It runs 24/7. Being that cement is the 3rd largest export product of Cyprus, Vassiliko’s port is the main industry port of the country. The port is also used for third-party vendors. There are two methods of moving product onto ships: a conveyor belt for bulk cement loading and a moveable clinker belt. The most interesting part of our tour was the guide’s discussion of alternative fuels. The guide told us that Vassiliko actually gets the alternative fuels for free from the government. Other companies around the EU are also incentivized to use alternative fuels in place of damaging fossil fuels.
As mentioned, VTTV is located on Vassiliko’s campus. VTTV, a branch of its parent company, VTTI, focuses on the logistics and storage of oil and gas. They can accommodate 3.4 million barrels of storage in 28 tanks. They have a marine jetty that allows them to collect oil via the sea. For example, they take excess oil from Vassiliko. The oil is then stored, refined, and delivered to large companies and large oil brokers. Their operations run 24/7/365. The essential part of VTTV’s business is the storage component, which includes machinery like pipes, valves, and tanks. The oil storage terminal is there as a means of ensuring orders can be processed. When the final product’s customer demand is low, the oil can be kept in the units. When it is high, it can easily be discharged. From my understanding, the reuse and refinement of old oil into newer oil is quite sustainable.
We ended our day with a trip to the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI). I was particularly excited to visit their headquarters because this was the organization that I researched with my group. CMMI was only established a few years ago (2019) and received funding through the EU’s Horizon Research and Innovation Program. It is a leading research and development institute that has the mission of driving sustainable blue growth. As my group found in our research and heard again today, blue growth calls for management of complex marine and social-ecological systems and is a long-term strategy for sustainability that balances economic abundance with the health of the seas. This research is divided into several sectors, including marine technology, marine science, and marine social science. We were able to hear from many engineers at the company about their work on CMMI’s research and innovation missions. I thought the most interesting project is “ZEST.” The mission of this project is to create an AI-powered autonomous zero-emissions vessel, which has been successful so far. A question I had for the company was whether their projects come from their own original ideas or whether the projects are initiated by the government and the EU. Based on the presenter’s response, the project ideas seem to come from both the institute and the government. Usually, the government targets a sustainability issue and CMMI must find a way to solve it. I am appreciative of what I learned at both companies. Given that Generation Z will be tasked with fighting climate change, I will certainly need to find reasonable ways for businesses to transition to sustainable practices.
I added an image below of a building we passed on the highway on our way to Larnaca. I thought it resembled the Cathedral of Learning!
