Procedure of cement: Bricklayer Joseph Aspdin of Leed

s, England first made portland cement early in the 19th century by burning powdered limestone and clay in his kitchen stove. By this crude method he laid the foundation for an industry which annually processes literally mountains of limestone, clay, cement rock, and other materials into a powder so fine it will pass through a sieve capable of holding water. Cement is so fine that one pound of cement contains 150 billion grains. Portland cement, the basic ingredient of concrete, is a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and small amounts of other ingredients to which gypsum is added in the final grinding process to regulate the setting time of the concrete. Lime and silica make up about 85% of the mass. Common among the materials used in its manufacture are limestone, shells, and chalk or marl combined with shale, clay, slate or blast furnace slag, silica sand, and iron ore.

Each step in manufacture of portland cement is checked by frequent chemical and physical tests in plant laboratories. The finished product is also analyzed and tested to ensure that it complies with all specifications.

Two Manufacturing Processes:

Two different processes, "dry" and "wet," are used in the manufacture of portland cement.

When rock is the principal raw material, the first step after quarrying in both processes is the primary crushing. Mountains of rock are fed through crushers capable of handling pieces as large as an oil drum. The first crushing reduces the rock to a maximum size of about 6 inches. The rock then goes to secondary crushers or hammer mills for reduction to about 3 inches or smaller.

In the wet process, the raw materials, properly proportioned, are then ground with water, thoroughly mixed and fed into the kiln in the form of a "slurry" (containing enough water to make it fluid). In the dry process, raw materials are ground, mixed, and fed to the kiln in a dry state. In other respects, the two processes are essentially alike.

The raw material is heated to about 2,700 degrees F in huge cylindrical steel rotary kilns lined with special firebrick. Kilns are frequently as much as 12 feet in diameter large enough to accommodate an automobile and longer in many instances than the height of a 40-story building. Kilns are mounted with the axis inclined slightly from the horizontal. The finely ground raw material or the slurry is fed into the higher end. At the lower end is a roaring blast of flame, produced by precisely controlled burning of powdered coal, oil or gas under forced draft.

As the material moves through the kiln, certain elements are driven off in the form of gases. The remaining elements unite to form a new substance with new physical and chemical characteristics. The new substance, called clinker, is formed in pieces about the size of marbles.

Clinker is discharged red-hot from the lower end of the kiln and generally is brought down to handling temperature in various types of coolers. The heated air from the coolers is returned to the kilns, a process that saves fuel and increases burning efficiency.

1)mining he raw materials: Limestone and clay are blasted from rock quarries by boring thr rocks and setting off explosives with a negligible impact of the environment,due to the modern technology employed.

2)Transporting the raw materials:Once the huge rock have been fragmented,they are transported to the plant in dump trucks or by conveyor belt.

Raw Material Preparation

The raw materials used in the manufacture of cement are limestone, shale, sand and iron ore, typical chemical compositions of which are given in the table below. Limestone makes up approximately 80% of the raw material requirements, composes of mainly calcium carbonate with small intrusions of magnesium carbonate. Quarrying operations are geared to minimizing the intrusions. The limestone is crushed to less than 25mm in size. MgO in the cement, if present in sufficient quantities will cause expansion upon hydration thus resulting in unsoundness in the concrete.

Due to the variable nature of these components, they are pre-blended prior to their use. It is crushed and stored in a preblending hall, utilizing the chevron pile stacking method. In this method, stacking takes place at one end of the pile. At the other end of the pile the material is reclaimed and then stored in a feeding hopper which is ready for use.

Raw Material Proportioning & Grinding

The raw materials are extracted from the hoppers via weigh-feeders. The materials are conveyed to the grinding mill and are ground to a suitable fineness, called raw meal at this stage. This is then stored in a blending silo and blended to ensure homogeneity. The proportions of the 4 components are controlled by the continuous sampling and testing of this raw meal. The raw meal chemical composition is determined by the use of an x-ray fluorescence analyzer. This is linked to the computer which will automatically adjust the weigh-feeders, so that the resultant raw meal stored in the blending silo meets the preset parameters. After blending this material is then discharged into the storage silos ready for the next phase of production. The parameters used in the control of the raw meal are lime saturation factor, silica modulus and iron modulus. These are actually proportions of the various chemical components which are desired in the resultant clinker.

As coal is used as a fuel the coal ash, a combustion product of the coal, has to be treated as an individual raw material component and the appropriate corrections made at the weigh-feeder stage.

Raw Grinding Systems

When dry grinding is applied, the grinding installation serves the double purpose of grinding and drying.

The most economical and simple installations are obtained by using the kiln exhaust gas for the drying process, and carrying out the process in one machine.

The main factors influencing the selection of the most suitable raw grinding systems are: 1. Moisture content

2. Capacity of plant 3. Abrasiveness of raw materials. 4. Energy consumption 5. Installation costs.

Vertical mills can be used for moisture contents up to 16-18% as long as the raw materials are not very abrasive. In case of moisture contents lower than 3-6% (highest for small-sized plants) roller mills may not bring about any significant saving in energy and installation costs compared with ball mills.

Ball mills are suitable for low and medium moisture contents and should always be used for very abrasive raw materials. The drying capacity can be increased by installation of a flash drier at the mill inlet or by predrying in a crusher.

Coal Grinding

Coal contains varying quantities of volatiles, both combustible and non-combustible. All types of coal also contain hygroscopic (inherent) moisture as well as varying quantities of impurities which are released in the form of ash in the combustion process.

The degree of grinding required depends on the type of coal used. Coal with a low volatile content requires a high ignition temperature and must be finely ground. Coal with a high volatile content, however, must not be ground too fine, otherwise the volatiles will be expelled too quickly to be able to mix properly with the combustion air.

The table specifies the main types of coal in geological order and the approximate coal meal finenesses recommended.

Drying - Air Circulation

There are three factors which are decisive in determining the amount of air to be drawn through a coal mill: 1) The amount of air at a given temperature must be sufficient to ensure effective drying of the moist coal. 2) The amount of air must be adequate in relation to the evaporated moisture, so that the dew point of the air leaving the mill is maintained at a suitably low level. In practice, the dew point must be 15-20C lower than the mill exit air temperature to prevent condensation in the ducts and the dedusting installation after the mill. 3) In air-swept mills, of both the ball and roller types, the air velocity must be high enough to extract the ground material from the mill. When specifying the moisture of coal, a distinction is made between surface moisture, which evaporates at ambient temperature, and hygroscopic moisture which is more closely bound to the coal.The inherent moisture content depends on the geological age of the coal, the moisture ranging from 1-2% in anthracite to 10-20% in lignite.

The relationship between moisture content and dew point as well as the amount and temperature of the drying air is shown in the above graphs. As will appear, if the dewpoint is 15C below the mill outlet temperature of 70C, the dewpoint thus being 55C, and the moisture content 10%, the mill inlet temperature should not exceed approx. 350C. The figure also shows that if the available drying air has a temperature in the region of 300C, and the moisture content in the raw coal is below 10%, the drying air requirements are less than 1.2 kg air per kg coal. The amount of air to be extracted from the grinding plant, including false air and water vapour will in this case be less than 1.5 kg air per kg coal, corresponding to approx 17% of the combustion air, based on coal with a calorific value of 6500 kcal/kg (27,200 kJ/kg).

For a conventional suspension preheater kiln this 17% normally constitutes a suitable amount of primary air for kiln combustion purposes. As to the amount of air necessary to extract the coal meal from the mill, operational data has been collected from a large number of ball mills grinding coal with up to 10% moisture, all with the temperature of the drying air exceeding 300C. On the basis of this data it can be concluded that the amount of air required to extract the coal meal from

the mill is around 1.5 kg air per kg coal. The corresponding figure for roller mills is approx. 2.0 kg air per kg coal.

The coal must be sufficiently dry for grinding, storing, and feeding purposes. Excessive drying should be avoided, due to the accelerating process of oxidation which occurs as the moisture content is reduced, with the consequent risk of spontaneous ignition. In practice, drying off the surface moisture of the coal and a small part of the hygroscopic moisture will ensure a high degree of safety combined with good processing and handling properties.

In order to maintain a constant moisture content in the coal meal discharged from the mill, coal grinding plants are supplied with fully automatic thermal control equipment controlling the temperature of the air at mill outlet. Numerous innovative process and design details derived from extensive studies provide this future-oriented clinker cooler with outstanding mechanical and process technological advantages.

A unique combination of static, horizontally positioned aeration floor and an above-floor transporting system usually offers an extremely efficient clinker transporting principle and strict separation of transportation and aeration functions.

Following are important factors for Cooling in Cement Plants

Ideal transverse distribution of the clinker, with the effect of uniform, efficient cooling of all grain size fractions over the entire width of the cooler

Extremely low construction height Very high thermal efficiency

-A robust, low-wear and easy to maintain design, with resultant outstanding availability and A consistently modular design.

The raw material that is required for the cement production process is quarried in accordance with the characteristic raw material data by blasting, extraction by hydraulic excavators or ripping. The pre-reduction plant breaks the extracted material to the particle size required by the downstream raw mill. The raw material to be broken is delivered to the feed hoppers of the crushing plant by heavy trucks or other transport machines. The discharge device underneath the feed hopper then conveys the material at a controlled flow rate to the crusher. Depending on the material's properties and the method of extraction, very different types of crushing plant are used for breaking the raw material.

The rotary kiln has a statically determined support configuration on only two roller stations and has adirect drive system. The kiln shell with its splined tyres rotates on self-aligning rollers, which automatically adjust themselves to the momentary running conditions. The kiln is directly driven via the rollers of the inlet-end roller station. This system supersedes the previously conventional girth gear and pinion mechanism. It is rounded off by pneumatic inlet and outlet seals, hydraulic axial thrust system and air-cooled inlet trough.

Thanks to the statically determined support configuration, this kiln design is characterised by high operating reliability, minimal maintenance and inspection requirements and therefore very low operating costs.

Electronic filling and weighing system

There are different version of the system in accordance to :

requested capacity up to 30 bags/hour (depending on product)

bag size up to 2 tons product characteristic level of automation required