Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sustainable Develompent in Cement Industry
Sustainable Develompent in Cement Industry
Sustainable Develompent in Cement Industry
Group 3:
Faculty of Engineering
2021
I. Introduction
Along with the fast progress of the times, it demands advances in technology and
various kinds of new inventions as the main driving factor, especially in entering
industrial infrastructure development, one of which is the cement production industry.
Currently the cement industry is increasing with production such as the construction of
road infrastructure, bridges, ports, housing and irrigation. The increase in cement
growth to date is still influenced by the high level of development by the public and
private sectors as well as the high demand for housing for the community.
In general, cement is a hydrolysis adhesive produced from clinker milling which mainly
contains calcium silicate and additional material in the form of calcium sulfate. Cement
is called a hydrolysis adhesive because the compounds contained react with water and
form new substances that can glue solid materials into a solid mass unit and can form a
building with a variety of models.
The ability of Cement as an adhesive is to utilize natural resources in the form of clay,
limestone, iron sand, and mixed with a certain composition so that it is familiar in the
formation of all through quite long stages, one of the most important parts is the
process heating using coal.
Raw materials limestone and clay extracted from the quarry by blasting. Then, the
limestone and clay are transported to the crusher using a dump truck.
2. Crusher
Rocks extracted from the quarry are crushed into small pieces below 80 millimetres
and routed to the nearby cement plant on a conveyor belt.
The pre-homogenized mix of raw material in then wheighed, dried, and ground in
order to get a very fine powder, with maximum particle size of a few tens of microns.
This step of process, is also the occasion to add some so-called “alternative material”
that limit the use of virgin natural material.
Those can be recycled or reused soil, sludge, sand, or rock from other industries
thereby reducing the global amount of waste. The fine powder thus obtained out of
the raw mill is called the RAW MEAL.
The raw meal is then transferred and thoroughly mixed in a homogenizing silo, in
order to get a physical and chemical composition as consistent as possible. The
performance of the kiln and the quality of the resulting clinker depends on this
operation!
6. Raw meal preheater
The blended raw meal is then pre-heated up to 850’C in the pre-heater tower using
the exhaust heat of the kiln. The raw meal, fed in at the top of the preheater tower,
passes by gravity through the series of the cyclone in the tower. The hot gases from
the kiln are blown against the flow, through the cyclones, heating by heat transfer
the raw meal.
The efficiency of this process enables significant reductions of the CO2 footprints of
the clinker.
7. Burning
The meal, previously preheated at 850’C is then sintered at 1.450’C with a flame at
2.000’C, in a rotary kiln insulted with refractory bricks, that runs 24 hours a day and 7
days a week. The burning flame is produced by a high technology burner’s nozzle, in
which fuels are injected. The fuels can be fossils like coal, but these are often
replaced by alternative fuels, such as biomass, recycled solids and liquids like used
tires animal meal, sewage sludge, olive stones, etc.
Successive chemical reations take place in the sintering zone of the kiln, that lead to
the appropriate molecular combination to obtain the CLINKER.
8. Clinker cooler
The molten material is then quenched (meaning rapidly cooled) by air stream, in
order to obtain the appropriate crystalline chemistry for the hydraulic properties of
the clinker.
Thus obtained, in the form of hard granules of a few centimeters, the clinker is then
cooled down to approximately 100’C and routed to the storage hall. For the most
efficient coolers, the exhaust heat is mainly recycled to the preheater, which reduces
significantly the environmental footprint of the product.
9. Clinker storage
The clinker cooled down to 100’C is then transported and stored in a hall with a
storage capacity on tens of thousands of tons, this allows the cement production to
be hept going continuously, including during te kiln shutdown for annual
maintenance for instance.
The clinker is then ground with gypsum, as a cement setting regulator, and one or
several other main additional constituents: natural, such as limestone and pozzolana,
or, recycled from industires, such as slag and fly ash.
At the outlet of the mill, the particles go through separator in order to obtain a fine
powder with a granulardistribution, targeted and consistent, called CEMENT.
The cement is then stored in silos of thousands of tons, that may be internally
divided to receive different types of cement.
During the storage, the cement is sampled and chemical and physical analyses are
performed, as well as strength tests on standard mortars in order to certify its level
of quality. The analysers in cement plants laboratories reach a high level of
technology, like XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) and XRD (X-Ray Diffraction). New
generations of samplers involve very high precision robots. The quality of a cement is
recognized by the consistency of its composition and performances.
The quality of the produced cement depends on the raw materials and also on the
processing operations. The control system of the cement production controls these
operations to produce the maximum quantity of the cement with prescribed quality and
minimum cost.
The quality also depends on many variables. The appropriate rate of the basic
components determining the setting time, strength, heat of hydration, expansion, etc.,
is the most important. The free lime content (FLC) also influences the quality to the size
distribution and the relative surface area.
A great many open and closed loop controls can be found in the cement production,
however, the proper control of the operation-triplet, i.e., proportioning — burning —
grinding can ensure that the overall control aim is reached, and that the other controls
are auxiliary ones. Therefore, these three areas are investigated next.
In consequence of the drastic increases in the energy prices, a much higher attention
has been paid to the dry process, therefore — not disregarding the widely used wet
process — only the dry one is discussed, and only the most important control
philosophies and systems are treated, because it is impossible to survey all existing
strategies.
ROLE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
The role of a chemical engineer in the cement industry spans from the very first
units, all the way to packaging.
3. Ensuring homogeniety
5. Calcination
8. Storage
https://www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c18/E6-43-34-04.pdf
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-role-of-Chemical-Engineer-in-cement-industry
https://youtu.be/5Jbdk7DBm74
1. Open impeller
Open impeller has vanes that are open on both sides without any protective shroud. As they don’t
have any support either side they tend to be weaker, and therefore are typically used in smaller,
inexpensive pumps that aren’t operated under significant strain. Whilst they are able to handle a
degree of solid content unlike closed impellers, they require a higher NPSH to operate without
cavitation, damage and loss of efficiency.
2. Semi-open impeller
Semi-open impellers have a back-wall shroud that adds mechanical strength to the vanes, whilst
remaining open on the other side. They are somewhat of a middle ground between open and
closed impellers in terms of efficiency and NPSHr, making them suited to medium sized pumps
with a small amount of soft solids. It’s important to note with semi-open impellers that the
clearance between the vanes and the pump casing needs to be small, as if too large slippage
and recirculation will occur.
3. Closed impeller
closed impeller has enclosed at the back and front, providing maximum strength. They have a
low NPSH required and provide a more efficient flow. Expensive design due to their reliance on
close-clearance wear rings to reduce axial loads and help maintain efficiency. They are the most
popular impeller for large pumps transferring clean liquid as they are prone to clogging when in
contact with solids.