With inbuilt water recycling, the sand washing technology from CDE is one of the most eco-friendly solutions in the market today that produces high quality construction sand, says Manish Bhartia, Managing Director, CDE Asia Limited.

What is the current market scenario in sand washing? 

In India, for many years, screw classifiers were the mainstay for washing sand, whether from the rivers or the crusher fines. These were cheap to buy, but led to loss in excess of 20 percent fine sand resulting in a lack of finer fractions of sand between 1mm and 300 micron in the grade and quality of the final washed product. Another drawback was the loss of production when settling ponds needed to be cleaned on a regular basis. Some operators adopted the bucket wheel washers for settling the fine in the product but these were also not quite effective.

India is increasingly witnessing a strategic shift by quarry and mine operators who recognise that to gain an edge over their competitor, they need to offer the best quality sand to their customers. To increase return on investment, construction companies started using manufactured sand and also investing in more efficient sand washing systems such as the popular CDE Combo plants, which are mobile and compact. Water conservation being a major concern in India, the CDE Combo plants are equipped with water recycling and sludge management system, which recycles upto 95 percent of used water.

What are the key products and solutions from the company for sand washing?

Our endeavour is to restore and reclaim sand and aggregates from various waste materials through our patented pathbreaking wet processing technologies and have championed the cause of countering natural sand shortage with our innovations.

CDE mobile washing system has revolutionised the sand and aggregate washing industry in terms of efficiency, allowing customers to wash even the dirtiest of sands and aggregates thanks to its pinpoint accuracy in silt and clay cut points.

Combo mobile sand washing plant, our flagship product, converts crushed rock fines into high-quality manufactured sand that are a perfect and superior substitute to natural riverine sand.

Our ReUrban wet processing range recycles construction and demolition waste into reusable and beneficiated sand, hence meaningfully contributing to the cause of smart cities.

What are the green technologies offered in sand washing?

Our purpose is to deliver clean environment solutions and create positive social and environmental impact. At CDE Asia, we recognise the widening gap between natural resources and the demand for high-grade aggregates, especially sand, to satisfy the growing developmental needs of the burgeoning urban landscape. Combo, CDE’s flagship product is designed to solve the natural sand shortage by introducing a revolutionary technology that washes crushed rock to produce washed manufactured sand (M-sand).

M-sand helps to stem illegal mining operations for riverine sand that lead to ecological imbalance by providing a reliable and superior alternative that is scalable and produced to the exacting grading standards of the industry. While the washed sand concept is not new, the unique design on Combo has revolutionised the industry with nation-wide installations in India and overseas.

Our R&D team strives to create machines that are not only profitable but also eco- friendly. Some of the highlights of our plants are:

• Combo is designed to recycle 95 percent of the water used in the manufacturing process, thereby minimising waste and conserving finite natural resources
• The platform is designed to be dust- free, and generates very little noise in operation, leading to a fully self- sustained unit that causes almost no harm to the ecology.
• Low carbon footprints: No liquids or effluents are discharged into the environment during the functioning of Combo.
• Sand product delivered with low moisture making it concrete ready.
• Powered by portable, IoT technology, the Combo unit is easy to install and gives maximum environmental savings.
• Zero Waste – waste sludge from sand production is converted to high quality bricks that is superior to fired red bricks.

How do you look at the demand trend in future for sand washing solutions?

India ranks second after China in its use of construction sand, a dwindling and increasingly valuable resource. As our cities are growing and the pace of infrastructure development increasing, the demand for high quality sand is all but set to rise. With more and more state governments imposing curbs on the rampant illegal river sand mining, the only solution to fuel our growth is manufactured sand.

With inbuilt water recycling, the sand washing technology from CDE is one of the most eco- friendly solutions in the market today that produces high quality construction sand. We are extremely bullish on the future demand trend of the industry and personally we aim to grow at a rate of 30 percent on YoY basis for the next few years. We have recently set up new offices in Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangalore and new warehouses in Gurgaon and Bangalore to improve our market penetration and customer satisfaction.