ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

I. Manufacturing Processes
Usually, there are two processes employed for the
manufacturer of Portland cement.
(1)

Dry process

(2)

Wet process

The selection of process for manufacture of cement

normally depends upon the nature of raw material. If the
raw material is hard and dry then Dry process is normally
preferred. Whereas if raw material is soft then wet process
is preferred. Other than nature of raw material, the factors
like consumption of fuel, availability of raw material, the
climate of the factory place are also considered for the
selection of process for manufacture of cement.
Normally in the both process the basic processes involves
following major operations like:
1. Selection of raw materials
2. Crushing and grinding i.e.Mixing of raw material
3. Storage of slurry
4. Burning the ground mix in a rotary kiln(Rotary kilns heat
processing devices used for the heat processing stage
of manufacture of Portland cement, in which calcium
carbonate reacts with silica-bearing minerals to form a
mixture of calcium silicates.)

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

5. Cooling of hot clinkers (In the manufacture of Portland

cement clinker occurs as lumps or nodules, usually 3
millimetres to 25 millimetres in diameter, produced by
sintering (fused together without melting to the point of
liquification) limestone and alumino-silicate materials
such as clay )
6. Grinding of clinkers

Clinkers

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

1. Dry Process
1. Mixing of raw material
In this process, the raw material are crushed in gyratory
crushers in to small pieces. Further these are ground in
fine powder in ball mills and stored separately. Then
mixed in proper proportions, pulverized in tube mills and
homogenized in a mixing mill with the help of
compressed air. This is called as dry raw mix, stored in
storage bins also called as silos and kept ready to be
fed in to a rotary kiln. STEP 2 onwards process is as of
wet process

A ball mill: the dotted boundary

rotates and has large iron balls inside which further
crush the material

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

Wet Process Manufacturing of Portland

Cement.
This process involves the following major operations
1. Mixing of raw material
Limestones (calcareous material) are crushed in
crusher and forwarded to tube mills to convert ground
and fine powder, which is further stored in storage tank
known as silos. Fine clay or shale (argillaceous
material) is mixed with water for washing to remove
organic matter, if any and stored in. Powdered lime
stone and washed wet clay are allowed to flow in a
channel in the right proportions and led to grinding mills
where they are mixed homogeneously to form paste
called slurry. Then slurry is led to connecting basin
where the chemical composition is to adjusted if
necessary. This slurry is finaly stored and fed to rotary
kiln.

Cement silo
4

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

2. Burning of raw material

Burning of raw material is usually in a rotary kiln which
is made up of steel tube, lined inside with refractory
bricks and rotating at a speed of 0.5 to 2 rotations per
minute. The kiln is slightly inclined so that material fed
in at the upper end travels slowly to the lower and firing
and discharging end. The kiln is supported by several
tiers which run on rollers and the kiln is driven by an AC
commutator motor.
The slurry of the raw materials enters from the upper
end of the rotary kiln while the burning fuel like
pulverized coal, oil or natural gas and air are induced
from the lower end of the kiln. The slurry gradually
descends in the kiln into different zones of increasing
temperature.

typical

rotary

kiln

with

different

temperature zones is illustrated in Fig

Slurry
Drying zone (400C)

Flue gases
400C

Calcing zone (1000C)

1000C

Clinkering zone (1500C)

1500C
Pulverized coal

Clinker

Schematic diagram of rotary kiln

5

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

Actual photo of rotary kiln

THEORY

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

(A) Chemical reactions in various zones of rotary kiln

With reference to the temperature ,there are three
zones in which various reaction takes place. The
zones and reactions are discussed as below.

(a) Drying Zone

The upper part of the kiln is known as Drying zone,
where the temperature is about 400oC. In this zone
most of the water is driven out of the slurry
because of the hot gases.

(b) Calcination zone

The central part of the kiln, where the temperature
is about 1000oC, known as Calcination zone. In
this

zone

lime

stone

of

slurry

undergo

decomposition to form quick lime and carbon

dioxide, which latter escapes out. The material
forms small lumps called nodules. The following
reaction takes place in this zone.
3 + 2
Lime stone Quick lime

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

(c) Clinkering zone

This is the lower part of the rotary kiln, where the
temperature is between 1500oC to 1700oC, known
as Clinkering zone. Here lime and clay undergo
chemical interaction that is fusion, yielding various
products are shown in the following reactions.
2 + 2 2 4 2
Dicalcium silicate
3 + 2 3 5 3
Tricalcium silicate
3 + 2 3 3 2 6 3
Tricalcium Aluminate
4 + 2 3 + 2 3 4 2 2 10 4
Tetracalcium Alumino Ferrite

The aluminates and silicates of calcium then fuse

together to form small, hard, grayish stones called
clinkers.

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

THEORY

3. Grinding
The hot clinkers discharging from the kiln is cooled by
various systems such as planetary coolers, rotary
coolers.

In

the

coolers,

clinker

is

cooled

with

atmospheric air. The cooled clinker is then tinely

pulverized together with 2 to 6% gypsum (which acts as
a setting time retarder of cement-water paste i.e.
increases or decrease the time required to harden
cement) in long tube mills. The finer the cement, the
greater is the strength.

4. Packing
The ground cement is stored in concrete storage silos.
Moisture free compressed air is used to agitate the
cement and to keep it free from compaction by its own
weight. Further it is fed to automatic packing machines.
Usually, cement is packed in jute bags each holding
50kg. nett of cement.

ENGINEERING MATERIALS

Flow

MANUFACTURING OF PORTLAND CEMENT

chart

for

THEORY

Manufacturing

Portland cement by Wet-process.

Flow chart for manufacturing of portland cement by Wet-process
Calcareous material

Argillaceous material

Crushing

Washing

Storage

Wash basin

Water

Proportioning
Grinding
Slurry

Coal

Correcting basin

Crushing and drying

Slurry storage tank

Grinding

Rotary kiln

Pulverised coal

Cement clinker
Cooier
Clinker storage
Clinker grinding elevetors

Gypsum

Cement storage tank

Weighing
Packing
Dispatch

Flow chart- Manufacturing of Portland Cement.

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